European governments have agreed to increase the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption to 20% by 2020. A crucial question for policy makers is how to mobilise the additional capital investments in RE and which consumer expenditures are involved. The article describes policy...

This article evaluates the status of current RES deployment, policies and barriers in the EU-27 member states and compares it to the required to meet the 2020 targets. The evaluation relies strongly on the quantitative deployment status and policy effectiveness indicators. European RES...

The European Commission has proposed a new Renewable Energy Directive, which includes flexibility provisions allowing the cost-effective attainment of the ambitious target for renewable energy of 20% of energy consumption, which has been set for the year 2020. One of the flexibility provisions...

Currently, a wide range of strategies is implemented in different countries to increase the share of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E). A still controversial discussion is whether quantity-driven (like Tradable Green Certificates (TGCs) based on quotas) or price-driven (like...

The European Commission is currently reviewing two major policy instruments which will pose major economic challenges and opportunities for EU power producers. First, the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is likely to include a high percentage of auctioning. Second, support schemes for...

To meet existing and future targets for renewable energy sources, national governments, EU policymakers and electricity market stakeholders have a pronounced interest in designing optimal instruments for the promotion of Renewable Energy Sources in the Electricity sector (RES-E). This paper...

The core objective of this paper is to elaborate on historically implemented promotion strategies of renewable energy sources and the associated deployment within the European electricity market. Hence, at a first glance, the historic development of renewable energy sources in the electricity...

Policies aimed to promote biofuels locally had tremendous effects on global market developments across the past decade. This article develops insights into the interaction of these policies and market forces via a comprehensive collection and analysis of international production and trade data....

This paper presents and analyses international solid biofuel trade and concludes upon interactions with bioenergy policies and market factors. It shows that trade has grown from about 56 to 300PJ between 2000 and 2010. Wood pellets grew strongest, i.e. from 8.5 to 120PJ. Other relevant streams...