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The European Dimension of Germany’s Energy Transition pp 67–82Cite as

The Influence of European State Aid Law on the Design of Support Schemes for Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources in Germany and Other Member States

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Abstract

Since 2014, the EU Commission’s Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy 2014–2020 (EEAG) have become the main driver for the progressing convergence of support schemes for electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) in different Member States. The key requirements for the design of RES electricity support schemes are, inter alia, the introduction of auctions to determine the amount of aid and its payment in form of a market premium. These State aid requirements have led to some major changes in the support schemes of different Member States and raised concerns whether the EU Commission is overstepping its competencies. This article summarizes this development with a special focus on the German support scheme (EEG 2014 and EEG 2017) and gives an outlook on the likely future situation for RES electricity support schemes under the currently discussed European legal framework for the years 2021–2030.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stiftung Umweltenergierecht (Foundation for Environmental Energy Law), Würzburg, Germany

    Markus Kahles & Fabian Pause

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  1. Markus Kahles
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  2. Fabian Pause
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Correspondence to Markus Kahles .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Erik Gawel

  2. Department of Economics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Sebastian Strunz

  3. Department of Economics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Paul Lehmann

  4. Department of Economics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Alexandra Purkus

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Kahles, M., Pause, F. (2019). The Influence of European State Aid Law on the Design of Support Schemes for Electricity from Renewable Energy Sources in Germany and Other Member States. In: Gawel, E., Strunz, S., Lehmann, P., Purkus, A. (eds) The European Dimension of Germany’s Energy Transition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03374-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03374-3_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03373-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03374-3

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