3     Is (early) harmonisation a preferable policy option?

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3.2     Focus on RES-electricity - financial support for RES-E

Looking at the financial side of RES-E support in the period studied, various indicators appear useful to shed light on different aspects. In this brief repetition of key outcomes a focus is set on the resulting cumulative support expenditures, i.e. the sum of direct cost for society / consumer of the underlying policy intervention to facilitate the use of RES. More precisely, cumulative support expenditures (10) for consumers / society include both the cumulative consumer burden in the researched period 2011 to 2020 and the residual costs for the years after 2020.

A comparison of the cumulative support expenditures for new RES-E installations – i.e. the total transfer costs due to the promotion of new installations in the observed period 2011 to 2020 as well as the residual costs after 2020 – is given in Figure 3-2 . This graph illustrates both the cost-efficiency and the effectiveness of RES-E support options – i.e. expressing the cumulative support expenditures per MWh induced RES-E generation.

Figure 3-2: Present value (2011) of cumulative support expenditures for new RES-E installations (2011 to 2020) in the EU-27 for all key cases (national (SNP) and (by 2013) harmonised RES support), expressed per MWh induced RES-E generation

Note: In the case of a TGC scheme, consumer expenditures paid after 2020 are estimated assuming that the average TGC price in the years 2018 to 2020 is constant up to the phase-out of the support

Some key findings derived from Figure 3-2 are:

• The cumulative transfer costs for society are lowest when applying technology-specific support harmonised across Europe achieved by applying premium feed-in tariffs. In this case the specific cumulative support expenditures amount to 41.6 € per MWh induced RES-E generation.
  
  
• Slightly higher costs arise in the case of applying technology-specific support harmonised throughout Europe with application of a RES trading system with technology-banding. In this case the specific cumulative consumer expenditures amount to 42.5 € per MWh induced RES-E generation.
  
  
• Strengthened national policies achieve a similar performance than harmonised quotas with banding, resulting in specific costs of 42.6 €/ MWhRES-E which corresponds to an increase of 2% compared to the technology-specific support provided within a harmonised premium feed-in tariff scheme.
  
  
• The most inefficient policy option in terms of societal / consumer burden is harmonised, but non technology-specific support, which results in support expenditures of 47.1 €/MWhRES-E.