IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v37y2009i6p2143-2146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

EU renewable energy support policy: Faith or facts?

Author

Listed:
  • Jacobsson, Staffan
  • Bergek, Anna
  • Finon, Dominique
  • Lauber, Volkmar
  • Mitchell, Catherine
  • Toke, David
  • Verbruggen, Aviel

Abstract

The recent EU Commission proposal for promoting the supply of power from renewable energy sources was originally based on a pan-European, harmonised tradable green certificate (TGC) scheme. We suggest, on the basis of a multi-disciplinary analysis, that a pan-EU TGC system is not the way forward for Europe. It is vital that the Commission (and the majority of Member States) avoids implementation of such policy designs put forward by a coalition of vested interests. They should instead look at, and act upon, the available evidence from those countries that have experimented with TGCs (e.g. Flanders, UK and Sweden) and design policies that stand a better chance of meeting the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency and equity. In particular, the policies must enable EU to meet the immense innovation/industrialisation challenge by inducing the development of a capital goods industry that can, eventually, diffuse a broad range of technologies that use renewable energy sources. Only then we can acquire an ability to implement an industrial revolution in the energy system in a way that broadly meets the criteria of effectiveness and dynamic efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacobsson, Staffan & Bergek, Anna & Finon, Dominique & Lauber, Volkmar & Mitchell, Catherine & Toke, David & Verbruggen, Aviel, 2009. "EU renewable energy support policy: Faith or facts?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2143-2146, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:6:p:2143-2146
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(09)00134-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stenzel, Till & Frenzel, Alexander, 2008. "Regulating technological change--The strategic reactions of utility companies towards subsidy policies in the German, Spanish and UK electricity markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 2645-2657, July.
    2. Sanden, Bjorn A. & Azar, Christian, 2005. "Near-term technology policies for long-term climate targets--economy wide versus technology specific approaches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 1557-1576, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Verbruggen, Aviel & Lauber, Volkmar, 2012. "Assessing the performance of renewable electricity support instruments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 635-644.
    2. Paul Lehmann & Felix Creutzig & Melf-Hinrich Ehlers & Nele Friedrichsen & Clemens Heuson & Lion Hirth & Robert Pietzcker, 2012. "Carbon Lock-Out: Advancing Renewable Energy Policy in Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-32, February.
    3. Bosetti, Valentina & Carraro, Carlo & Duval, Romain & Tavoni, Massimo, 2011. "What should we expect from innovation? A model-based assessment of the environmental and mitigation cost implications of climate-related R&D," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1313-1320.
    4. Eleftheriadis, Iordanis M. & Anagnostopoulou, Evgenia G., 2015. "Identifying barriers in the diffusion of renewable energy sources," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 153-164.
    5. Melliger, Marc, 2023. "Quantifying technology skewness in European multi-technology auctions and the effect of design elements and other driving factors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    6. Hellsmark, Hans & Jacobsson, Staffan, 2012. "Realising the potential of gasified biomass in the European Union—Policy challenges in moving from demonstration plants to a larger scale diffusion," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 507-518.
    7. Vogt-Schilb, Adrien & Hallegatte, Stephane & de Gouvello Christophe, 2014. "Long-term mitigation strategies and marginal abatement cost curves : a case study on Brazil," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6808, The World Bank.
    8. Child, Michael & Breyer, Christian, 2017. "Transition and transformation: A review of the concept of change in the progress towards future sustainable energy systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 11-26.
    9. Adrien Vogt-Schilb & St�phane Hallegatte & Christophe de Gouvello, 2015. "Marginal abatement cost curves and the quality of emission reductions: a case study on Brazil," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(6), pages 703-723, November.
    10. Charlie Wilson & Arnulf Grubler, 2011. "Lessons from the history of technological change for clean energy scenarios and policies," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(3), pages 165-184, August.
    11. Ronan Bolton & Timothy J Foxon & Stephen Hall, 2016. "Energy transitions and uncertainty: Creating low carbon investment opportunities in the UK electricity sector," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1387-1403, December.
    12. Nesta, Lionel & Vona, Francesco & Nicolli, Francesco, 2014. "Environmental policies, competition and innovation in renewable energy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 396-411.
    13. Pablo Del Río, 2010. "Climate Change Policies and New Technologies," Chapters, in: Emilio Cerdá Tena & Xavier Labandeira (ed.), Climate Change Policies, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Vroon, Tjebbe & Teunissen, Erik & Drent, Marlon & Negro, Simona O. & van Sark, Wilfried G.J.H.M., 2022. "Escaping the niche market: An innovation system analysis of the Dutch building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    15. Stefan Ćetković & Aron Buzogány & Miranda Schreurs, 2016. "Varieties of clean energy transitions in Europe: Political-economic foundations of onshore and offshore wind development," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-18, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Worch, Hagen & Truffer, Bernhard & Kabinga, Mundia & Eberhard, Anton & Markard, Jochen, 2013. "A capability perspective on performance deficiencies in utility firms," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 1-9.
    17. Nolan, Tahlia, 2024. "Is pivoting offshore the right policy for achieving decarbonisation in the state of Victoria, Australia's electricity sector?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    18. Lazarevic, David & Kautto, Petrus & Antikainen, Riina, 2020. "Finland's wood-frame multi-storey construction innovation system: Analysing motors of creative destruction," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    19. Löhr, Meike & Mattes, Jannika, 2022. "Facing transition phase two: Analysing actor strategies in a stagnating acceleration phase," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    20. Pinkse, Jonatan & van den Buuse, Daniel, 2012. "The development and commercialization of solar PV technology in the oil industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 11-20.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:6:p:2143-2146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.