Renewable Energies in the Contracting Market

Abstract

Contracting is an innovative service model in which tasks relating to the supply of energy and other utilities are assigned to a contractor. This produces a number of benefits for prospective customers. Many varieties of contracting have become established on the market. These mainly differ in terms of the scope of services offered by the service provider. Renewable energies (“renewables”) are deployed in contracting concepts, particularly when it comes to supplying heating energy. That said, the different forms of renewables are not equally suited to this purpose and therefore offer varying potential for deployment. Various subsidy programmes are available to further increase renewables’ share of energy consumption and, thus, successfully promote the so-called energy turnaround. However, the use of renewables also involves numerous challenges and risks. Contracting provides prospective users with the opportunity to overcome these hurdles and use renewables in their energy supply. As a general rule, it is the customer who decides whether renewables will be used in the context of a contracting solution by stipulating the requirements it has in its utility solution. Furthermore, lawmakers also play a key role by setting mandatory requirements for the use of renewables or by determining the relevant subsidy framework. Usually, renewables can only be used when they come with inexpensive supply concepts or enable customers to comply with legal requirements.

A previous version of this chapter has been published in Herbes, C.; Friege, Chr. (Hrsg): Marketing Erneuerbarer Energien. Grundlagen, Geschäftsmodelle, Fallbeispiele, 2015, Springer Gabler.