Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2021
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Saving for a Dry Day: Coal, Dams, and the Energy Transition

By: Michele Fioretti and Jorge Tamayo
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
ShareBar

Abstract

Renewable generation creates a tradeoff between current and future energy production as generators produce energy by releasing previously stored resources. Studying the Colombian market, we find that diversified firms strategically substitute fossil fuels for hydropower before droughts. This substitution mitigates the surge in market prices due to the lower hydropower capacity available during dry periods. Diversification can increase prices, instead, if it results from mergers steepening a firm’s residual demand. Thus, integrating production technologies within firms can smooth the clean-energy transition by offsetting higher prices during scarcity periods if the unaffected technologies help store renewables more than exercise market power.

Keywords

Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Production; Green Technology Industry; Energy Industry; Colombia

Citation

Fioretti, Michele, and Jorge Tamayo. "Saving for a Dry Day: Coal, Dams, and the Energy Transition." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-016, August 2021.
  • Read Now

About The Author

Jorge Tamayo

Strategy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Organizational Responses to Product Cycles

    By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham, Jorge Tamayo and Nicolas Torres
    • February 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (B)

    By: Jorge Tamayo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal
    • February 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (A)

    By: Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago
More from the Authors
  • Organizational Responses to Product Cycles By: Achyuta Adhvaryu, Vittorio Bassi, Anant Nyshadham, Jorge Tamayo and Nicolas Torres
  • Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (B) By: Jorge Tamayo, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Mariana Cal
  • Grupo Sancor Seguros: Facing the Digital Transformation of Insurance in Argentina (A) By: Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College