The Influence of European State Aid Law on the Design of Support Schemes for Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources in Germany and Other Member States

2019 ◽  
pp. 67-82
Author(s):  
Markus Kahles ◽  
Fabian Pause
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
State Aid ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Member States ◽  
European State

The Production of Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources as a Public Service Obligation

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 486-499
Author(s):  
Tim Maxian Rusche
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Regulatory Mechanism ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
State Aid ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Member States ◽  
Compensation Payments ◽  
Public Service Obligation

AbstractThe article analyses whether electricity production from renewable energy sources can be the object of a public service obligation. This question is of particular importance for the State aid assessment of payments to producers of electricity from renewable energy sources. Such payments typically occur under so-called feed-in tariffs, which are a regulatory mechanism used in most Member States to promote the production of electricity from renewable energy sources. The author argues that there are compelling reasons for considering that Member States can introduce public service obligations with respect to the production of electricity from renewable energy sources, and that compensation payments granted are exempted from the notification obligation under Article 88(3) EC treaty, if the beneficiary undertaking receives not more then 30 million EUR per year as compensation, and if its turnover does not exceed 100 million EUR. Should these thresholds be exceeded, the compensation payments need to be notified to the Commission. The Commission will then assess them under the Community framework for public service compensations, which has been adopted in November 2005.

Energy security of the European Union – opportunities and challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 93-107
Author(s):  
Dominika Czapla
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Future ◽  
Nord Stream

For many years, the future of energy has been one of the most important problems and challenges for both national and global policy making. It is related to the high responsibility of the energy sector for climate change on Earth, but also for caring about ensuring sufficient energy for the future generations. Thus, energy policy is an important pillar of maintaining, broadly understood as internal security of the country. The biggest challenge related to ensuring energy security of the European Union is the diversification of energy sources. Member States are trying to tackle this challenge in two ways. Firstly, through the development of renewable energy, and secondly, looking for new channels for the supply of non-renewable energy. The restructuring of the energy sector, which has taken place in recent years, in accordance with the guidelines of the European Union, aims to intensify the use of environmentally friendly renewable energy sources. Equally important is the construction of the Nord Stream 2 and Turk Steam gas pipelines, which has been ongoing for several years, which raises much controversy in the Member States. The article is an analysis of the opportunities and challenges facing the European Union related to ensuring stable energy supplies to European citizens.

scholarly journals Controversies Concerning the Interpretation of State Resources as a Prerequisite of State Aid: an Illustration Using the Example of Polish Green Certificates and the Auction System

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 269-282
Author(s):  
Michał Bałdowski
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
State Aid ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Broad Definition ◽  
Negative Results ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Green Certificates ◽  
Definition Of

The process of Europeanisation in the legal field results in various conflicts between the Member States and European authorities. Cases concerning State aid are an example of such a conflict, where on one hand Member States want to preserve control over various supporting schemes and on the other the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union through a set of judgements and decisions increase their supervisory power over the supporting schemes. The European jurisprudence tend to stretch the scope of State aid by expanding the definition of State resources, which is one of its prerequisites. Applying of such a broad definition of State resources to Polish green certificates scheme and the auction scheme shows negative results of this approach that not only decreases the efficiency of the Renewable Energy Sources supporting schemes but that has a negative reflection on the whole State aid system.

scholarly journals Energy and renewable energy use in EU28 and Hungary on the basis of statistics

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-56
Author(s):  
Judit Csizmásné Tóth ◽  
Zsolt Hollósy ◽  
Judit Poór
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

This paper presents the expansion of renewable energy sources of electricity generation over the last 10-15 years, based on statistical data for Hungary and for the EU-28 member states. The share of renewable energy in electricity production was almost 30% in the EU28 in 2016, while in Hungary it was only 7%, which is the second lowest share in EU member states. In Hungary, the share of nuclear energy is still high in electricity production, and the proportion of biomass in renewable energy in Hungary is very high compared to the EU-28 average. An important issue for Hungary is how to reduce the share of nuclear energy in the longer term. Finally, the paper highlights the essential elements of the Hungarian METAR subsidy system aimed at encouraging the production of electricity (and heat) energy from renewable energy sources while minimizing the burden on end users.

scholarly journals Assessing the Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy Sources Relationship in EU Countries

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2323
Author(s):  
Bogdan Włodarczyk ◽  
Daniela Firoiu ◽  
George H. Ionescu ◽  
Florin Ghiocel ◽  
Marek Szturo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Additional Support

In the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, by adopting the EU Renewable Energy Directive and the European Green Deal, the European Union aims at an extremely ambitious goal to become climate neutral by 2050. This goal involves a massive investment plan to support this initiative, but also to reduce disparities between Member States, in order to transform the Union into a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the sustainable development and renewable energy sources relationship in EU countries from a new perspective. Based on Eurostat available data and with the help of hierarchical clustering analysis, the Member States were divided in 2019 into five clusters, highlighting the key characteristics of the selected variables. The results of this research revealed high-performing groups of countries, as well as countries that need increased attention and additional support to become more efficient in achieving their sustainable development goals and renewable energy source targets.

scholarly journals Significance of the Climate and Energy Package for the Development of Renewable Energy Sources in the European Union

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Pach-Gurgul
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Sector ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Energy Package

The utilisation of renewable energy in the European Union seems, at the present stage of energy policy development, inevitable. It offers many benefits, including, above all: the possibility of increasing the energy security of a given state or region thanks to the diversification of the sources of energy supply, the limitation of imports from energy suppliers, such as of natural gas or oil, thus reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels, ecological effects connected with the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions and other substances harmful to the natural environment, economic and social benefits, such as the creation of new jobs. The Climate and Energy Package obliges member states to pursue a common aim – to increase the share of renewable energy to 20% in the general energy balance of the European Union by 2020. This is a challenging task, since the renewable energy sector requires significant financial support to increase its competitiveness, compared to traditional energy sources. When adopting the Energy Package, leaders of member states did not anticipate the economic crisis and its impact on the European Union’s economy, and on the energy sector in particular.  

scholarly journals Comparison of Renewable Energy Sources in ‘New’ EU Member States in the Context of National Energy Transformations

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (23) ◽  
pp. 7963
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Wałachowska ◽  
Aranka Ignasiak-Szulc
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
New Eu Member States

The European Union strives to create sustainable, low-carbon economies; therefore, energy policies of all member states should move towards renewable energy sources (RES). That concerns also the so-called new EU member states. These countries, on the one hand, are characterized by significant historical similarities in terms of post-communist legacy and adopted development strategies linked with the EU membership, and on the other hand, by significant social, economic and environmental differences resulting from different transformation and development paths and conditions. The question remains how the selected countries should cope with actions in the field of national energy transformations to confront the multiple challenges linked to assuring a significant level of sustainable development. In order to be successful, it is necessary to conduct an effective and rapid changes in the energy industry, which should be preceded by an analysis of the differentiation of countries in terms of their potentials. The results of such analyses should be helpful in selecting the most appropriate strategies for transformation of the described industry. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to assess the new EU member states for RES diversification and identify similar subgroups of countries using cluster analysis, taking into account the percentage share of individual renewable energy sources in total renewable energy production. This was done for the years 2010, 2015 and 2019 which should allow us to demonstrate the differences between them as a group and also reveal changes recorded over time for a single country. Ward’s method was used for the analysis. The presented approach to the analysis of energy production enabled the acquisition of new knowledge in this field and supported the assessment of the current state of RES. The results obtained can be used in countries of comparable specificity to undertake activities of similar nature in relation to internal energy production, technological development or common energy policy.

scholarly journals Energy Policy of European Union Member States in the Context of Renewable Energy Sources Development

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2864
Author(s):  
Wiesław Musiał ◽  
Monika Zioło ◽  
Lidia Luty ◽  
Kamila Musiał
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Policy ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Individual Member ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Countries

As a consequence of increasing air pollution, the European Commission has decided to introduce special directives laying down the measures to achieve climate and energy neutrality. Renewable energy (RE) sources play an important role in the pursuit of these goals, which has been taken into account in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The aim of this article is to describe patterns and trends in the achievements of the energy policy of European Union (EU) countries in the field of renewable energy in sustainable development. The identification of leaders in this field gives the possibility to analyse actions taken by the governments of these countries and the possible implementation of the introduced solutions on the ground of individual Member States at the regional and national levels. At the beginning Main goal of energy policy on the field of renewable energy sources (RES) is to increase production from environmentally friendly sources that is why trends were determined in order to assess the rate of achievement of the national target for changes the share of energy from renewable sources in total gross energy consumption. Groups of similar countries were then identified on the basis of three indicators corresponding to the targets set in the climate and energy package. In the group of analysed countries, 14 have achieved the 2020 targets and 4 have exceeded the 2030 targets. The main renewable energy sources (RES) are biofuels, wind, and hydropower. In the assessment of the achievement of energy policy targets, the best situation was observed in the case of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. These countries have significantly increased the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption. Compared to other EU countries, they have reduced the economy’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions the most.

scholarly journals Classification of Renewable Sources of Electricity in the Context of Sustainable Development of the New EU Member States

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Brożyna ◽  
Grzegorz Mentel ◽  
Eva Ivanová ◽  
Gennadii Sorokin
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Electrical Capacity ◽  
New Eu Member States

Climate change and awareness of the need to care for the environment have resulted in a global increase in the interest in renewable energy sources. The European Union (EU) is active in this respect and requires Member States to fulfill specific plans in the transformation of their energy systems. We employed hierarchical cluster analysis in an attempt to distinguish those countries among the new EU Member States that increased their electrical capacity from renewable energy sources to the greatest extent while paying attention to their energy intensity. The analyses were conducted in two scenarios for both 2004 and 2016. The first scenario assumed an analysis of all known renewable energy sources, whereas in the second scenario, only renewable energy sources from wind and solar power plants were included. The division of analyses into these two variants showed the importance of the differences in the energy assessment of individual countries, depending on classification of renewable energy sources. We identified groups of countries where electrical capacity from renewable energy sources increased the most. Conducting analyses using two variants allowed distinguishing countries that based most of their renewable energy on modern renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power plants. The inclusion of gross domestic product in the analyses allowed us to identify countries with the worst energy efficiency value.

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