CEER Paper on Unsupported Renewable Energy Installations
20 May 2020
Today, CEER publishes its Paper on Unsupported RES. The short paper provides a first assessment of the status quo of formerly-supported Renewable Energy Sources (RES) installations in Europe. It is based on comprehensive internal CEER analysis which followed three main objectives: (1) Assessing the magnitude of RES installations which will be running without support, notably after their support time has ended, in the coming years; (2) identifying the upcoming regulatory challenges and, if needed, the changes to the legal framework; and (3) showing the alternative business strategies for RES installations running without support.
The paper brings forward the following preliminary messages:
For the time being only a small share of RES installations are not being supported.
The largest share of RES installations running without support are those which have never been supported in the past, notably large hydropower plants.
An increasing amount of capacity will be confronted with the end of their support time in the coming years.
For the RES technologies of onshore wind and solar new (larger) capacities are already being planned and installed to run without any direct financial support.
The legal framework governing RES installations has so far not been adapted: Either because the framework does not make a difference between supported and unsupported RES or because the support time is still running and adaptation will be needed only in the future.
The strategies followed by unsupported RES installations are manifold. The most likely approach is – at least in case of larger installations – to rely on the market as a source of income. Smaller ones, mainly PV, will most likely focus on self-consumption.
