Renewable Energy policy developments in the EU27 Results of the OPTRES, PROGRESS and Futurese projec

1
Renewable Energy policy developments in the
EU-27 Results of the OPTRES, PROGRESS and
Futures-e projects
Gemma Reece Ecofys UK EWEC 2008 Brussels, 1
April 2008

2
Presentation outline

• OPTRES, PROGRESS and futures-e projects
• Growth of renewable electricity in the EU
• Overview of policy support mechanisms
• Level of support
• Effectiveness and efficiency of support
• Best practice in renewable electricity policy
• The future of European policy mechanisms?

3
Overview of projects

• OPTRES Assessment and optimisation of renewable
  energy support schemes in the European
  electricity market
• PROGRESS Promotion and growth of renewable
  energy sources and systems
• Futures-e Deriving a future European Policy for
  Renewable Electricity

4
Growth of renewable electricity in EU
Source OPTRES/PROGRESS, 2007

• Wind power 17.5 of RES-E in 2006
• EU White Paper installed capacity target for
  2010 already met in 2005!
• Germany, Spain and Denmark lead. Portugal, UK,
  Ireland growing fast.

5
Overview of primary support for RES-E
Feed-in tariffs
Quota obligation
CY
CZ
AT
(LA)
EE
BG
DK
FR
ES
HU
DE
GR
IT
BE
IT
NL
LT
PT
LU
RO
SE
SK
SI
PL
UK
Certificate systems
UK
IE
FI
DK
SI
FR
MT
Fiscal incentives
Tenders
6
Level of support vs generation cost for onshore
wind
Source OPTRES, 2007, European Commission
(COM(2008)19 final)
7
Effectiveness and efficiency of support for
onshore wind

• Effectiveness and efficiency witnessed to be
  highest in FIT countries
• But
• Less experience with Quota obligations
• Design of support mechanism crucial

Source OPTRES, 2007, European Commission
(COM(2008)19 final)
8
Best practice in RES-E policy

• Design of support mechanisms crucial to their
  success. Important to implement best practice in
  policy design
• Removal of non-financial barriers
  (administrative, technical)
• New support schemes should target just new RES-E
  capacity
• Guarantee, but strictly limit the duration of
  financial support
• Include full basket of available RES-E options
• Make support technology-specific and
• Set incentives to take account of and accelerate
  future cost reductions.
• The worlds of the feed-in and quota system are
  showing signs of converging on these basic
  principles.

9
Example of policy development UK and Italy

• Both countries run TGC schemes for RES-E (IT also
  has separated FIT for PV)
• Countries witnessed expansion of lowest cost
  RES-E
• Both now introducing banding of green
  certificates

Italy
UK
10
The future of policy?

• Harmonisation across EU long-term goal, but
  premature today.
• Workshop as part of futures-e project in June
  last year discussed definition of harmonisation
  of RES-E policy, as well as the pros and cons.
  Conclusions
• Important to first implement best practice in
  RES-E policy design and remove barriers.
• Optimisation and coordination of policy between
  Member States desirable.
• Full harmonisation could be based on either
  feed-in or quota
• Potential parallel option for technology-specific
  harmonisation, e.g. offshore wind?

11
Futures-e regional workshops

• Join the debate for the long-term vision for
  European renewable electricity policy!
• Ljubljana on 11 April for AU, BG, HR, RO and SI
• London on 25 April for BE, DK, DE, IE, NL and UK
• The London workshop will explore specific options
  for coordination of offshore wind promotion in
  the North Sea region.
• See futures-e website for details
  www.futures-e.org

12

• Thank you for your attention!
• Gemma Reece
• g.reece_at_ecofys.co.uk
• ECOFYS stand 7A728