Renewables policy saves EU €6bn a year
Corinna Kleßmann defended her PhD thesis at Utrecht University on Wednesday.
Stepping up to a next phase in policy support for renewable energy could save the EU €4bn of policy costs a year - this is according to a new PhD thesis.
In addition, if EU member states would increasingly cooperate, another €2bn to €3bn billion could be saved in annual policy costs for achieving the 2020 targets, it says.
Corinna Kleßmann defended her PhD thesis at Utrecht University on Wednesday this week.
Kleßmann, who works as a managing consultant for policy design and evaluation, at Ecofys Germany, discussed the effective and cost efficient design of renewable energy sources support policies in the European Union. The support of renewables in the EU is currently a patchwork of 27 different policy portfolios, guided by the EU Directive targeting a 20% share of renewables by 2020.
Her analysis shows that the effectiveness and efficiency of policies is still low in many European member states, but that "top runner" countries have gained significant experience in tailored policy design.
She suggests that countries that are lagging behind should apply elements from the successful policies applied in countries like Germany, Denmark or Sweden . Cross-country cooperation on renewables support could occur in specific projects - European law also allows countries to fully integrate their individual national targets and policies.
“This kind of bottom-up cooperation between member states seems more promising than a drastic harmonisation of policies by the European Commission”, Kleßmann concluded.
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