A cooperative interprovincial management model under renewable portfolio standard policy accounting for employment factors

The vigorous development of renewable energy (RE) is the key to mitigating climate change, realizing energy transformation and thereby guaranteeing energy security. China formally implemented the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in 2019 and has made certain advances, however, the spatial reverse distribution of RE supply and power consumption center and interprovincial barriers hinder the further development of the RPS. Therefore, this study considers the quota completion cost and employment factors comprehensively to construct a cooperative interprovincial management model (CIMM) of the RPS and address the interprovincial barriers while giving full play to provincial advantages. The minimum cost residual saving method is used to apportion the cooperation cost reasonably. Beijing, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and Shandong are taken as case provinces to verify the model. The result shows that, compared to the territorial management model, the CIMM increases RE generation by 19.58% and employment creation by 19.19% and lowers quota completion costs by 3.84%. A sensitivity analysis verified the robustness of the model. This study provides a scientific interprovincial cooperation model and cost distribution method for the central government to realize the efficient utilization of RE, and promote the further development of RE. Finally, policy recommendations to promote RE cooperation are proposed.