The support schemes for the growth of renewable energy

by Arturo Lorenzoni

The paper deals with the efficiency and effectiveness of renewable energy support in Europe in order to achieve the target of 20% of final consumption in 2020. The reconciliation of subsidisation of carbon free energy sources and competition in the energy sector creates serious problems to the coherence of the European energy policy. At the same time, it is important to give value to the taxpayer or consumer money used to promote renewable energy, maximising the result achieved in terms of greenhouse gas emission reduction, technological development and competitiveness of the European industry. The paper gives an overview of the support schemes adopted in the different European countries, evaluating their performance according to the policy targets and investigates the possibility to start a trading of the national quotas among EU member States, aware that the efficient achievement of the long term target requires a form of trading of quotas. It is focused mainly on renewable electricity (RES-E), even of it acknowledges the importance of renewable heat (RES-H) to achieve the long term target of 20% of final consumption from renewables.