Analysis of Sustainable and Efficient Promotion Strategies for Renewable Energies in the European Union Taking into Account the Interdependences with the Conventional Power Plants

Project Number 320

According to the European Commission, the share of renewable energies in total energy consumption should reach 20 % by 2020. To achieve this extremely high target, the share of renewable energies used in electricity generation must rise to approximately 34 % within this time period.

The integration of renewable energies on this scale confronts conventional power plants with major challenges from an engineering point of view. This involves, among other things, demanding flexibility requirements for the power plant portfolio and the provision of balancing power.

This research project is designed to assess the impact of various promotion mechanisms for renewable energies at a European level taking account of the aforementioned interaction with conventional power plants. The following detailed scenarios will be analysed in this context:

• Business as usual.
• Envisaged promotion regime of the European Commission pursuant to the EU Directive of January 2008 (draft).
• Harmonised EU-wide feed-in system.
• Harmonised EU-wide quota system.

The final assessment of these promotion mechanisms in terms of energy economics includes an assessment of the interaction with the conventional power plant portfolio.

The project will be carried out from January to November 2009 and will be managed by Dr. Dietmar Lindenberger and Ralf Wissen at the Institute of Energy Economics at the University of Cologne (EWI). The research will be supported by the VGB European Technical Committee Use of Renewables and Distributed Generation .