Renewable Energy Cooperation in Europe: What Next? Drivers and Barriers to the Use of Cooperation Mechanisms

Abstract

Cooperation on Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in Europe is expected to contribute to energy and climate policy goals and bring multiple benefits at the national, regional and European levels. For this reason, the Cooperation Mechanisms of the RES Directive 2009/28/EC were originally designed to encourage the collaboration of countries and contribute to the achievement of the 2020 EU RES target in a cost-effective manner while providing Member States (MS) with flexibility to meet their national RES objectives. These mechanisms will allow MS to achieve their national RES target in cooperation with other MS and include statistical transfers, joint projects and joint support schemes. However, their use has been limited, leading to skepticism about their future use. The aim of this article is to identify the factors that influence MS decision to use the Cooperation Mechanisms and to rank their importance. The empirical analysis is based on a comprehensive, in-depth literature review and a dedicated survey to MS. Our results show that, indeed, a wide array of drivers and barriers have influenced and will influence the future use of the Cooperation Mechanisms. The main drivers and barriers in the past significantly differ to those influencing the future use. Furthermore, the perception of the relevance of the drivers and barriers by the MS differs depending on whether the countries have already met or are having difficulties to meet their 2020 RES target domestically and on whether they have actually used the Cooperation Mechanisms or not. Some policy implications on how to overcome the existing barriers to the use of those mechanisms are derived from the analysis.

Political commitment and transparency as a critical factor to achieve territorial cohesion and sustainable growth. European cross‐border projects and strategies

“…What is more, this idea also corroborates with previous findings (Castanho et al, ). Those findings are in line with previous studies and researches conducted over European territories—Reitel (); Spirkova and Ivanicka (); De Sousa (); Magoulios, Sotirios, and Kydros (); ESPON (ECR2) (); LISER (); Kurowska‐Pysz (); Kurowska‐Pysz and Szczepańska‐Woszczyna (); Wróblewski, Dacko‐Pikiewicz, and Cuyler (); Liberato, Alén, Liberato, and Domínguez (); Caldés, Del Río, Lechón, & Gerbeti, ; Cano, Musserella, Cano‐Ortiz et al (); Nikologianni, Moore, and Larkham (); among many others—a need for strategic unification, as well as a deep relation of the present CBC deterioration with the 2008 economic crisis. Many of those studies highlight that the members of border institutions consider the identification of common strategic guidelines and their implementation based on concrete project actions, which constitutes a crucial step in trust building, increasing commitment and future cooperation.…”

Energy, Bioeconomy, Climate Changes and Environment Nexus

“…EU countries were also encouraged to cooperate in order to achieve set energy targets by the legal framework for the use of cooperation mechanisms set in the Renewable Energy Directive. Countries that have reached beyond their set targets (Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Luxemburg, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia , Slovenia, Spain, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) could potentially become so called "off taker countries" and use cooperation mechanisms to trading their surplus to countries that potentially falls short of set goals (such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Lithuania and Sweden) [23]. Several barriers for host and "off taker" countries have been identified and discussed by [23], for example, public reaction in the host country difficulties in communicating benefits, different uncertainties about energy prices and state aid.…”

Efficient Methods of Market Pricing in Power Industry within the Context of System Integration of Renewable Energy Sources

“…Serious state support is provided for scientific and technological developments of renewable energy power plants, the emphasis of which is shifted towards increasing their installed capacity. As noted in the papers [17][18][19], an increase in the unit capacity of power plants leads to a reduction in the cost of electricity production.…”