Development of policy instruments for further expansion of renewable energies

A quick and extensive expansion of renewable energies and increased energy efficiency are inevitable when it comes to implementing the energy transition and achieving the climate protection goals of the federal government. The expansion of renewable energies has been very successful in recent years. This is due to instruments such as the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), which has contributed significantly to the fact that renewable energies can now provide almost a quarter of the electricity consumption.

However, increasing shares in the power supply system also increase the challenges and problems for the entire energy supply system. The low shares in recent decades were integrated into the current system relatively easily. Yet larger shares entail increasingly great challenges for the overall system. Germany has initiated an intensively conducted discussion as to how to design a new funding framework for renewable energy that is at the same time an element of a new market design for the entire electricity market. The discussion has been triggered by extreme situations that were increasingly frequent in recent years, increasing shares of renewable energies, the current low level of prices on the electricity stock exchange and resulting differential costs of renewable energies. This is an evolutionary process and an end is not yet in sight.

It is clear that renewable energy sources are at the centre of the future electricity market design. To that end, they must first be optimally integrated in the electricity market, connected to the network expansion and harmonised with the conventional power plants. Due to the evolutionary nature of the process, measures which control and protect the energy transition, and especially ensure the continued development of renewable energies cost-effectively have absolute priority in the short term.

The described background was the starting point of adelphi’s project. The main focus was on the scientific monitoring and support in the implementation and design of the energy transition. The continuous evaluation and further development of policy instruments for the further expansion of renewable energies was of crucial importance in that regard. The project also focused in particular on the development of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). At the same time, the interactions of the further expansion of renewable energies were also taken into account cross-sectorally.