The regulation, the key for the development of renewable energies

Regulation, rather than mere availability of resources-water, wind, sun-, is the key factor for an appropriate development of the renewable energies. A comparative analysis of the main regulatory support schemes feed-in-tariffs, green certificates and auctions is done in this paper, concluding that systems based on feed-in-tariff are more efficient and effective. Finally, we describe and analyze the regulatory arrangements in place to support wind energy in Spain, a well-known worldwide success, which is based on three basic foundations: predictability, stability and sufficiency. (Author)