Impact of the regulatory framework for transmission investments on the cost of renewable energy in the EU

Under the current regulatory frame in the EU, transmission planning is done at the national level to maximize national welfare, rather than European welfare. In this paper, we develop a competitive equilibrium model that calculates the impact of this imperfect regulatory framework on the cost of renewable energy. We apply the model to a power system with two interconnected zones, and find that the impact is case specific, but significant. We also find that the negative impact of national transmission planning on the cost of renewable energy is more significant in a state of the world in which Member States trade renewable energy, but that this negative effect is much smaller than the positive effect of renewable energy trade between Member States. We conclude that the imperfect regulatory framework for transmission investment is a significant cost for renewable energy in the EU, but that it should not stop Member States from trading renewable energy.     

Tax incentives to promote green electricity: An overview of EU-27 countries

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the main tax incentives used in the EU-27 member states (MSs) to promote green electricity. Sixteen MSs use tax incentives to promote green electricity simultaneously with other promotion measures, especially quota obligations and price regulation. However, not all available technologies are promoted. For example, six MSs (Germany, Romania, Slovak Republic, Denmark, Sweden and Poland) have included an exemption on the payments of excise duties for electricity when the electricity is generated from renewable energy sources (RES). This tax incentive is the most widely used. Limited tax incentives in personal income tax are available in Belgium, France, Czech Republic and Luxembourg. In corporate tax, tax incentives consist mainly of a deduction in the taxable profit (Belgium, Greece, Czech Republic and Spain). Lower tax rates in VAT are applied in three MSs, France, Italy and Portugal. Only Spain and Italy use effective tax incentives in property tax. As a great diversity of tax incentives has been used to promote green electricity, this adds another difficulty to the EU objective of providing a renewable energy policy framework, but also it offers a useful set of case studies which can be used to inform EU policy development.     

Towards a future with large penetration of distributed generation: Is the current regulation of electricity distribution ready? Regulatory recommendations under a European perspective

The European Energy Policy promotes renewable energy sources and energy efficiency as means to mitigate environmental impact, increase security of supply and ensure economic competitiveness. As a result, the penetration levels of distributed generation (DG) in electricity networks are bound to increase. Distribution networks and distribution system operators (DSOs) will be especially affected by growing levels of DG. This paper reviews the current regulation of distribution in the European Union Member States, focusing on those aspects that might hinder the future integration of DG. Several regulatory issues that may hinder a successful integration of DG have been identified. Recommendations to improve the current situation are proposed. Regarding economic signals sent to DG, connection charges and cost-reflective use-of-system charges together with incentives to provide ancillary services are the key aspects. Concerning DSOs regulation, unbundling from generation and supply according to the European Electricity Directive, incentives for optimal planning and network operation considering DG, including energy losses and quality of service, and innovation schemes to migrate to active networks are the most relevant topics.     

An assessment of the sustainable energy investments in the framework of the EU–GCC cooperation

The cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should be broadened, deepened and become more interactive due to GCC states’ accession to the Kyoto protocol in 2005. Nowadays, the GCC states start putting climate change and its business opportunities on the top of their priorities’ list towards the accomplishment of the sustainable development goals. However, the level of development of sustainable energy investments (renewable energy, CO₂ sequestration and rational use of energy) is low until now in the GCC. For the above reason, the assessment of appropriate investments needs to be taken into account both by the governments in order to design the appropriate framework for supporting them and the project investors to identify the commercially profitable ones. In this framework, the aim of this paper is the identification and assessment of sustainable energy investments in the framework of the EU–GCC co-operation.     

Renewable energy policy and landscape management in Andalusia,Spain: The facts

Renewable energy has developed spectacularly in Spain since the European Union started a process of energy policy reform. A review of Spanish State legislation on renewable energies confirms that the success in installing renewable energy is attributable to public aid. Andalusia is one of the autonomous communities, which has simultaneously developed the legal framework and very successfully implemented the introduction of renewable power. When implementing the central government’s policy, the Andalusian regional government prioritised increases in both surface cover by wind and solar plants (thermal and photovoltaic energy) and in the number of companies involved. However, this development of renewable energies took place without any proper integration into regional spatial and landscape planning. This paper explores renewable power implementation in Andalusia through regulatory measures put in place over the last decade to develop renewable energy systems and the way they can be managed alongside planning issues. The location of large-scale renewable plants has had consequences for territory in the socio-political context of renewable energy promotion. The main findings focus on renewable energy plant sprawl throughout rural areas in Andalusia with no clear effect on landscape management and no firm backing from the local population.     

Effectiveness of policy instruments for supporting the use of waste wood as a renewable energy resource in the Czech Republic

This paper focuses on an examination of the government's strategy for encouraging the use of wood as a renewable fuel in Czech households. It examines the development of modern combustion technology and its impact on the environment. It describes the estimated requirement for wood by an average household and examines the overall availability of wood as a renewable fuel in the Czech Republic. The paper analyses in detail the policy instruments used by the Czech government to promote the use of this technology. It evaluates the impact of this policy on the users of the technology and practical achievements of the policy measures with respect to the overall objective that is the promotion of generation of renewable energy.     

Where AD plants wildly grow: The spatio-temporal diffusion of agricultural biogas production in the Czech Republic

There is fundamental agreement about the environmental benefits of renewable energy technologies, but unintended consequences arising from their deployment are frequent sources of conflicts. The Czech Republic has committed itself to supply 13.5% of its electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2020. High state incentives for renewable energies have been provided to achieve this target, however critical questions can be asked about the appropriateness of the design of the supporting frameworks which caused a boom in photo-voltaic (PV) installations on agricultural land, as well as a boom in the installation of agricultural anaerobic digestion (AD) plants fuelled by dedicated energy crops. This paper analyses the diffusion of agricultural AD plants in the Czech Republic, focusing especially on locational characteristics in relation to the quality of agricultural land, agricultural and population census data. Statistical analysis of those spatial datasets show that agricultural AD plants are mostly located in less favourable agricultural areas, in regions having recently experienced a reduction in cattle breeding, and in regions with significant increases of sowing areas of green maize. These findings suggests shortcomings in the supporting policy for AD plants in the Czech Republic, resulting in unintended environmental consequences, and missed opportunities to enhance energy self-sufficiency and resilience in the countryside.     

RENEWABLE ENERGIES IN EUROPE : STATISTICS AND THEIR PROBLEMS

Eurostat official figures for 1991 show that renewable energy contribution to primary production in the European Union (12) was 7% and to gross consumption 3.7%. These figures were calculated by a methodology which takes into account the actual energy content of renewable electricity from water, wind and other sources in terms of oil equivalent as for nuclear energy, a 3 times higher value is calculated by applying a Carnot conversion efficiency of 33%.

In this paper, corresponding figures of 10.16% for primary production and 5.6% for gross consumption are calculated by applying equivalent Carnot efficiency of 38½ % for all non fossil electricity. With the addition of Austria, Finland and Sweden into the energy mix of the European Union, the renewable energy contribution for 1991 would have been 14.4% of.primary production and.7.8% for gross consumption.     

Proposal for territorial distribution of the EU 2020 political renewable energy goal

This article first analyses the situation of indicators related to renewable energies in the reference year (2005) used by the European Union (EU) for its goal of a 20% share of energy from renewable sources in the gross final consumption of energy in 2020. Nonlinear distribution of dynamic targets is suggested for increasing the energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy. This methodology is then applied to European Union member countries, the NUTS0 territorial aggregation level according to the EUROSTAT Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), in the year 2020. Weighting was done based on share of energy from non-renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy, energy from non-renewable sources per capita, energy from non-renewable sources per GDP and GDP per capita in the EU-27 scenario. Finally, a multicriteria formula was applied to weight the variables used in this study.     

Applying ex-post index decomposition analysis to primary energy consumption for evaluating progress towards European energy efficiency targets

Monitoring the progress of the European Union and its Member States towards the EU’s energy efficiency target is a crucial part of the mandatory process as defined in the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU. In this paper, we conduct index decomposition analyses to show the effects of both policies and autonomous developments driving the changes of primary energy consumption for the European Union (EU28) and its Member States for the time period of 2000 to 2014, with a comparative analysis of Germany and Poland. These analyses are based on the logarithmic mean Divisia index methodology and primarily on data compiled by Eurostat. They are carried out on two levels, i.e. on the level of total primary energy consumption as well as on the level of primary energy consumption related to electricity generation. The first level examines the influences of changes in final energy consumption and changes within the energy conversion sector on primary energy consumption. With the second level, we provide insights into the effects of changes in electricity consumption and production. According to our first-level analysis, the consumption of primary energy in the EU28 is primarily influenced by an increased share of electrical energy and the counteracting effect of rising efficiency in electricity generation, induced by an increasing share of renewable energies. Furthermore, the reduction of final energy consumption had a significant decreasing influence on primary energy consumption in the European Union. The second level of our analysis regarding electricity generation shows that the increasing effect on primary energy consumption due to the rising consumption of electricity was mainly compensated by substituting nuclear and thermal power plants by renewable energy technologies.     

Serbian gas sector in the spotlight of oil and gas agreement with Russia

The Russian natural gas industry is the world's largest producer and transporter of natural gas. This paper identifies the benefits for Serbia as transient country to European Union for Russian natural gas through South Stream gas-line in the current political context of implementation of gas agreement. On the other hand, according to the Agreement on Stabilization and Integration to European Union, Serbia is obligatory to implement reforms in energy sector and its energy policy must be in accordance with the European Union policy. Republic of Serbia has produced and consumed natural gas domestically since 1952, but has always been net importer. Strategy of Energy Development in Serbia and especially, National Action Plan for the gasification on the territory of Republic of Serbia dedicated special attention to gas economy development in respect with expected contribution in efficient energy use and environmental policy protection in the country.     

Enhanced policies for the improvement of electricity efficiencies

Energy-efficiency improvement is considered as an important option to limit greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, the possibilities to implement new policies to improve the efficiency of electricity end-use are explored.The following policy actions are considered:

• •introduction of a ‘1 W standard’ for standby power consumption of appliances,
• •incremental standards for large electric appliances,
• •design guidelines for small electric appliances,
• •a technology-forcing standard for lighting,
• •a motor-drive program,
• •a program directed at the reduction of electricity use during empty-office hours,
• •actual energy performance requirements for service-sector buildings.

The implementation of these programs will contribute substantially to reaching greenhouse gas emission targets in the European Union (total estimated effect to be 200–350 Mton CO₂ emission reduction in the year 2020).However, to reach these targets a very substantial effort is required, both in terms of policy ambition, force of the applied instruments, and implementation efforts. In the case of electric appliances, regulatory instruments may need wider application. And, in order to attain the substantial potential savings in motor-drive systems, an effort comparable to the effort to promote renewable electricity in the European Union may be both justified and necessary.     

Main drivers of natural gas prices in the Czech Republic after the market liberalisation

One of the goals of the European Commission in the energy sector is creating a single competitive European market. The decision to liberalise energy markets has far-reaching consequences not only for gas companies, but also for the rest of the real economy in view of the fact that natural gas is being used as an important primary energy source in several sectors of production and in the power industry.We aim to answer how liberalisation/unbundling has influenced gas pricing/prices in the Czech Republic. We investigate the individual components of end-customer gas prices according to the value chain and we define and structure the drivers of these components.We use a case study from the Czech Republic, one of the Central and Eastern European countries, which, contrary to the old Member States, is buying most of its gas from one supplier (high import dependence and low supply diversity) and where the transmission and distribution network is characterised by a sufficient contractual and physical capacity. We stress that next to basic conditions on the European gas market (import dependency on external gas producers) legal and institutional conditions and the initial market structure of each Member State are also important for the results of the liberalisation.     

The potential role of renewable energy in Moldova

The European Union (EU) is developing an increasingly close relationship with Moldova, going beyond cooperation, to gradual economic integration and a deepening of political cooperation. This fact indicates that eventually the adoption of EU legislation in the energy sector is a necessity. Therefore, the provision of a clear picture of the country’s renewable energy potential is considered essential, bearing in mind the new EU Renewable Energy Directive, which sets a mandatory target of 20% of renewable energy sources by 2020 for each member state. The aim of this paper is to discuss the perspective of renewable energy in Moldova taking into account the current energy framework and to analyze, whether it is suitable to adopt similar methodologies and policy frameworks applied in other EU countries.     

Bioenergy production and use in Italy: Recent developments,perspectives and potential

The renewable energy policies in the European Union have already led to a significant progress; the energy mix should further change until 2020. Italy is planning to meet the 2020 targets on renewable energies also thanks to a relevant paradigm shift in renewable energy exploitation. Indeed, in 2005 the sector where RES were more present in Italy was electricity production with 203 PJ of renewable origin, while in the heating and cooling sector renewable energy penetration was limited to 80 PJ. On the contrary, in 2020 heating and cooling is expected to absorb the highest amount of renewable energy (438 PJ) with renewable electricity expected to count for 356 PJ. Bioenergy, a renewable energy resource particularly suitable for electricity, heating & cooling and in transport, will be at the core of this sectorial shift in renewable energy production and use and is expected to become the dominant form of RES before 2020. The paper makes a detailed analysis of the recent developments and expected evolution of the Italian energy mix in next decade. It provides an overview of the Italian bioenergy sector in comparison with other Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and with leading countries in the European Union with a special focus on the production, exploitation and potentials on the basis of the analysis of the Italian National Renewable Action Plan.     

Recommendations for implementation of energy strategy of the Republic of Croatia

The Energy Strategy of the Republic of Croatia was adopted by the Croatian Parliament in 2009 for the period until 2020 in order to harmonize national energy goals with goals and time framework of strategic documents of the European Union. The adoption of the Energy Strategy Implementation Program with associated measures is still in process. The goal of the Strategy was to create sustainable energy system that will make a balanced contribution to the security of energy supply, competitiveness and environmental protection in Croatia. In this paper an overview of the energy production, final energy consumption and planned development of energy infrastructure is given. The intention of the paper was to research and stress out the abilities and opportunities of Croatian energy system and to give recommendations for Energy Strategy implementation and practical realization of planned energy infrastructure projects for improvement of security of energy supply and competitiveness of energy system of the Republic of Croatia.     

Some issues related to the energy sources in the Czech Republic

Although the Czech Republic is a relatively small country it is faced with the problem of balancing energy production against the available resources of energy-producing raw materials. The Czech Republic is atypical of the EU countries because it is one of a few countries that presently exports electric energy and, at the same time, is still producing uranium ores. Resources of all the essential energy-producing raw materials exist in the Czech Republic, though, temporarily, only brown coal and bituminous coal reserves cover the immediate needs of energy production, while uranium ores are sufficient to satisfy the demands for a long period in the future. This paper provides data on the deposits of raw materials useful for energy production in the Czech Republic and their lifetimes, as well as the proportions of different energy sources.     

Econometric perspective of the energy consumption and economic growth relation in European Union

This paper's aim is to examine the relationship between energy consumption by fuel end economic growth in a comparative analysis for Spain, Romania and European Union. Applying a methodology in three steps on data for the 1990–2010 period, long-run and short-run relationships are revealed. On long-run, the energy consumption with total petroleum products source yields evidence of linkage with economic growth (proxied by Gross Domestic Product per capita in constant prices) for both two states and European Union. Furthermore, on short run only two relationships were emphasized both sustaining the growth hypothesis. So, in Romania, renewable energy consumption influences on short run the economic performance of activities; the relation is unidirectional and is not valid in the other direction, meaning that economic growth does not cause renewable energy consumption. In Spain, energy consumption with source natural gas causes economic growth on short-run, and the relation is valid just in this direction. The findings of this study help understanding the energy-growth nexus which stands behind all energy policies.     

Exploring drivers of energy demand in Cyprus – Scenarios and policy options

This paper describes a new set of energy demand forecasts for the Republic of Cyprus up to the year 2040, which have been developed in support of the renewable energy roadmap that was prepared for national authorities by the International Renewable Energy Agency. The analysis takes into account national end-use data from the residential and tertiary sector that had not been exploited up to now. Four final energy demand scenarios with diverging assumptions were defined in this study, offering a wide range of possible outcomes up to 2040; in addition, four alternative scenarios were applied for sensitivity analysis. Two of these scenarios can be regarded as those continuing the trends of the recent past in Cyprus (prior to the economic and financial downturn of years 2011–2014). However, a more rigorous implementation of energy efficiency measures in buildings and transport, as defined in the fourth scenario of this study, is also realistic; despite its potential costs, it might allow Cyprus both to decrease its carbon emissions in line with the long-term EU decarbonisation targets, and to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, thereby promoting energy efficiency as an important climate change adaptation measure.     

Growing trade of bioenergy in the EU: Public acceptability, policy harmonization, European standards and certification needs

Since 2000, the consumption of bioenergy in the European Union has grown, along with a concurrent growth in the trade of biomass for energy purposes (though traded volumes still remain small). Bioenergy production and trade will likely continue to increase into the future, driven by climate change concerns, emissions reduction targets, increasing concerns about domestic energy security and favourable policies. The harmonization of European standards and the development of certification systems are key issues to resolving potential negative effects of increased biomass trade. Certification systems not only address the issue of environmental sustainability from production to end-use, but also allow for product differentiation while adding value to sustainably produced products, which can ultimately enhance a competitive and sustainable bioenergy market. In addition to analyzing bioenergy trade growth in the European Union, a questionnaire survey of 92 bioenergy experts from eight member states within the European Union was conducted. Survey results show that bioenergy is highly accepted in the European Union but that there is a lack of European standards and policy harmonization, along with the absence of a competitive market or a certification system, all of which are necessary for sustainable production and trade of bioenergy. A large majority (63 percent) of the total respondents agreed that the certification of bioenergy is necessary to promote the sustainable use of biomass.