EU needs to prioritise RE

Europe’s renewables industry has called on the EU to prioritise reform of the region’s electricity market in order to bolster the development of clean energy.

The group of EU renewable energy associations made the call in a position paper, which said Europe’s current energy system is antiquated and tailored to conventional power generation.

Changes to the system could increase renewables capacity to 50% by 2030 from 28% currently the paper said.

It added that the market design should be adjusted to “decentralised and variable power production”.

The paper also outlined prerequisites for the success of market reform.

Reform should maintain priority dispatch and balancing exemptions for renewables in regions with a low penetration rate.

Member states should be allowed more flexibility to choose appropriate economic instruments to support renewables.

Small and medium-sized projects should continue to have dedicated frameworks and not be exposed to auctioning schemes.

There should be more market-based support instruments, such as feed-in premiums for large-scale projects.

The reform must also include support for research, innovation and demos of next generation renewable technologies.  

Ocean Energy Europe policy director Jacopo Moccia said: “It is no longer a question of how to integrate renewables into an inflexible and centralised power market, it is time to think how the power market can maximise the potential of renewables.

“It is necessary for the power market to promote rather than hamper flexibility.”

Image: sxc