Reinforcement Learning for Sequential Solar PV Policy Design under Uncertainty: An Agent-Based Approach

The paper presents a reinforcement learning framework for designing solar PV adoption policies under uncertainty, integrating RL with a stochastic agent‑based model to simulate yearly adoption over a 16‑year horizon. Policymakers can choose annual incentives such as grants, subsidised loans, and feed‑in tariffs, and the study evaluates three RL algorithms—PPO, SAC, and TD3—within a scalarised reward framework that balances adoption gains against costs. Results show clear trade‑off patterns, with TD3 yielding the highest adoption at higher cost, PPO achieving the lowest cost with fewer adopters, and a balanced PPO policy offering a middle ground, all outperforming static baseline policies.