Solar Subsidization Model
This model seeks to show how different factors impact how or when people decided to purchase solar panels for their houses. The parameters of the model:
The volatility of sunlight (how often it is cloudy vs. sunny)
The interest rate of taking out a loan for solar panels
Dollars received by selling a unit of electricity
The minimum number of profitable sunlight months before a household makes a decision to buy solar panels
The User Interface
To run the model press "Setup" once then press "Go." The black and yellow patches represent the amount of sunlight appearing on the ground. Black means there is very little to no sunlight while yellow and white mean that there is a lot to the maximum amount of sunlight on a patch of ground. The houses represent different households and if the houses have a black square on the roof it means that the household decided to take out a loan to buy solar panels. The households must then have to pay the amortized amount of the loan for the solar panels for the next 20 years. If the solar panels produce more electricity in dollars than the monthly loan payment then the solar panels are profitable. Households can lose money some months if they took out a high-interest loan and there is a lot of volatility in the amount of sunlight.
Check out My Slide Show Explaining The Model
HW4Part2Presentation.pptxDownload the Model Below:
Before you download the following file make sure you have NetLogo downloaded. The link for NetLogo is on the HealthCare Policy Project page.
SolarPanelModel.nlogo