Fostering the use of renewable energies in the European Union: the race between feed-in tariffs and green certificates

Fostering the use of renewable energies for power generation is at the heart of the EU's long term energy policy. Accordingly, the European Commission and literally all member states have set up ambitious installation targets for alternative energy sources. These aims can only be reached by recurring to support systems that help covering the cost disadvantages faced on liberalised electricity markets. Currently, a dichotomy of support models exists: Feed-in tariffs on the one side and green certificates on the other side seem promising tools to foster renewable energies. In this contribution we look closely at the concepts of both models as well as their advantages and disadvantages in terms of ecological effectiveness and economic efficiency. It becomes obvious that in the context of the liberalised power markets and the rush for the harmonisation of the instruments it will depend very much on in-detail regulations whether the installation targets will be met-regardless of the basic choice of model. (author)