futures-e Project Description

Overview:

The core objective of this action is to better involve Member State stakeholders in the debate on policy optimisation & coordination for renewable electricity and the process of post 2010 target discussion. This will enable a successful and in the long-term stable deployment of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) in Europe.

To achieve this overall target derived objectives are to:

• Establish a lively information exchange among the major market actors on experiences gained at national level.
• Discuss consequences of possible policy decisions with respect to the future of support schemes for RES-E from a national viewpoint.
• Facilitate establishing a common European vision on the long-term future of renewable energy as proposed in a top down manner by setting bottom-up activities at national level.
• Elaborate on best practices of the main policy instruments, i.e. feed-in tariffs, premium systems, quota obligations based on tradable green certificates - suitable for policy coordination between Member States or even coordination at European level.
• Assess national costs and benefits of RES-E and to derive a methodology to share them under a future coordinated European policy.

The work will be based on outcomes of previous activities (e.g. IEEA project OPTRES, FP5-project Green-X). An in-depth discussion process on support schemes for renewable electricity (RES-E) will be initiated, focussing on aspects of optimisation & coordination, and post 2010 national targets.

For analytical purposes with respect to the effectiveness and efficiency of support schemes the well established modelling and analysis tool Green-X will be applied. This software tool allows conducting in-depth analyses of RES deployment and accompanying transfer costs due to the promotion of RES on country, sectoral and technology level in a real-world energy policy context.

Challenges / Key issues:

A successful long-term deployment of RES-E largely depends on the active involvement of stakeholders all over Europe. Especially at present it is the responsibility of Member States to establish effective and efficient RES support schemes. Consequently, the success of any European policy initiative is dependent on the acceptance and active participation of stakeholders on Member State level as envisaged by this activity. Additionally, the innovations envisaged within this action contribute also to solve its key challenges:

• the derivation of a methodology to share costs & benefits under a European RES-E policy among the individual Member States or
• the integration of RES-E policies with other key EU objectives, such as rational energy use and GHG reduction.

Project Structure / Technical approach:

Based on outcomes of previous activities (e.g. EIE project OPTRES, DG TREN-tender FORRES 2020, FP5-project Green-X) an in-depth discussion process in the topical areas of support schemes for RES-E, focussing on aspects of optimisation & coordination, and post 2010 national targets will be initiated at the start of this action.

Proposed work includes to:

• Elaborate on optimisation & coordination of support schemes, incl. deriving a methodology to share cost & benefits of a future European policy among Member States.
• Undertake at the national level (at one international mid-term event and six regional workshops) a critical reflection of derived scenarios on future RES-E deployment as calculated for (at European level) coordinated and uncoordinated support policies.
• Reconsider and improve proposed scenarios and recommendations by taking into account identified national specifics.
• Analyse trade-offs between RES-E policies and other markets, policies and energy sectors and formulate recommendations for policy integration.

Flow chart of the project futures-e

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