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The national binding targets, set for renewable energy deployment at European Union (EU), call for extended clean energy investments. Renewable energy projects require high up-front expenditures including, in many cases, considerable financing costs. The main objective of this paper is to elaborate and apply a methodology that allows assessing the most important risk categories related to renewable energy investments. The cornerstone of this approach is the weighted average cost of capital, which has been extracted for new onshore wind projects in EU-28 member states based on diverse methods e.g. Capital Asset Pricing Model. Moreover, to validate the model results, a series of interviews with renewable energy project developers and financers across the EU has been conducted. The results show that, following the country risk, policy-related risks exert the highest impact on the cost of capital. Moreover, there are significant discrepancies between different geographical regions and market deployment levels. To support policy makers' decision on effective risk-reducing policy designs, the assessment could also be extended to other renewable energy technologies

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen as an important solution to solve the twin challenge of reducing GHG emissions, while utilizing fossil fuel reserves to meet future energy requirements. In this study an innovation systems perspective is applied to review the development of CCS technologies in the US between 2000 and 2009 and to come up with policy recommendations for technology managers that wish to accelerate the deployment of CCS. The analysis describes the successful built-up of an innovation system around CCS and pinpoints the key determinants for this achievement. However, the evaluation of the system's performance also indicates that America's leading role in the development of CCS should not be taken for granted. It shows that the large CCS R&D networks, as well as the extensive CCS knowledge base, which have been accumulated over the past decade, have not yet been valorized by entrepreneurs to explore the market for integrated CCS concepts linked to power generation. Therefore, it is argued that the build-up of the innovation system has entered a critical phase that is decisive for a further thriving development of CCS technologies in the US. This study provides a clear understanding of the current barriers to the technology's future deployment and outlines a policy strategy that (1) stimulates technological learning; (2) facilitates collaboration and coordination in CCS actor networks; (3) creates financial and market incentives for the technology; and (4) provides supportive regulation and sound communication on CCS.

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