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Turbulence and Reforms in European Renewable Energy Policy After 2008

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Feed-in tariffs in the European Union

Part of the book series: Progressive Energy Policy ((PEP))

Abstract

The chapter retraces the period from 2008 to 2015 as a phase of many reforms and reconsiderations in renewable electricity policies throughout the European Union. Focusing on the example of photovoltaics, Cointe and Nadaï show that feed-in tariffs were re-opened and re-politicised along new lines. The authors outline several challenges in the design of feed-in tariffs as they were addressed and discussed in the literature. They then discuss the reception of these evolutions by the European Commission. The Commission eventually shunned feed-in tariffs and encouraged their phase-out, based on a concern for investment security and for the operation of the single market. This suggests the internal electricity market is now conceived primarily as a tool for the optimal orientation of investment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Shum and Watanabe (2008) have shown that experience curve effects driven by production learning and R&D could account for the cost evolution of photovoltaic cells and modules, but that the economics of system integration and deployment in the downstream value chain were driven by more refined inter-project learning.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Béatrice Cointe

  2. CIRED-CNRS (Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développement), Nogent-sur-Marne, France

    Alain Nadaï

Authors
  1. Béatrice Cointe
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  2. Alain Nadaï
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Cointe, B., Nadaï, A. (2018). Turbulence and Reforms in European Renewable Energy Policy After 2008. In: Feed-in tariffs in the European Union. Progressive Energy Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76321-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76321-7_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76320-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76321-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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