Barbara Breitschopf

A concept to assess the costs and benefits of renewable energy use and distributional effects among actors: The example of Germany:

This paper describes a concept for the detailed assessment of the costs and benefits of renewable energy technologies deployment. A first quantitative impact assessment of German renewable energy technologies use is conducted from a historical perspective based on this comprehensive method. It includes costs and benefits at three different levels – energy system, micro- and macro-economic. The findings suggest that, at the system level, the generation costs in the electricity and heat sector are partly compensated by positive effects mainly from avoided emissions due to the use of renewable energy technologies in the electricity and heat sector. On the electricity market, small power consumers bear a very large share of the policy costs, while others might even profit from renewable energy technologies use. However, a comprehensive assessment that accounts for all the different negative and positive effects in the long term, including distributional effects, is more challenging. The concept applied here allows a differentiated comparison of a wide range of effects including aggregated costs and benefits as well as how these are distributed across different economic actors.

A prospective assessment of costs and benefits of renewable energy use in the European union

This article presents the outcomes of an assessment of expected costs and benefits of future renewable energy use in the European Union by 2020 and beyond. A binding European Union-wide renewable energy systems target of achieving at least 27% renewable energy systems share in gross final energy demand by 2030 was adopted by the Council of the European Union in October 2014. This has to be seen as an important first step in defining the framework for renewable energy systems post-2020. Other steps, like a clear concept for and an agreement on the effort sharing across Member States have to follow. For doing so, clarity on associated costs and benefits of the future renewable energy systems expansion across European Union Member States appears highly beneficial. The aim of this article is to contribute to the renewable energy systems policy debate, providing an indication of costs and benefits resulting from increased renewable energy systems deployment within the European Union in the 2020 and 2030 frameworks. Within the discussion of costs and benefits, we follow a standardized concept that takes into account the diversity of policies in force and depicts the cost and benefits of renewable energy systems deployment at different levels, avoiding double counting or mixing up of effects. The outcomes of the analysis presented here remain, however, incomplete, focussing on certain indicators and on a related cross-country comparison rather than presenting a complete overview on expected impacts of future renewable energy systems deployment within the European Union.

Basel Iii and Solvency Ii: Are the Risk Margins for Investments in Pv and Wind Adequate?

Worldwide investments in renewable energy (RE) have doubled between 2007 and 2011 while the financial crisis has led to stricter regulations. The paper describes the impacts of risk provision requirements on financing costs of RE investments. The risk assessment indicates that under the given conditions in Germany, policy and market risks are considered to be zero. Technical, performance and other risks are to be around 1.6 to 2.1 % p.a. So therefore, yield risk is left as the only determining default risk of RE investments. The risk provisions of RE investments are compared to the RE default risks by applying a simple cash-flow model. The findings show that risk provisions are not adequate for default risks and increase financing costs, and hence investment costs, in German PV and onshore wind generation plant, by up to EUR 13 million for large PV plants and EUR 8 million for wind parks (2011).

What is the impact of the EU Energy Union on electricity prices? Results for selected member states

This paper analyses how strongly EU energy policies have driven electricity wholesale prices. Especially, it investigates whether the activities of the Energy Union directed to increasing competition in the electricity system, creating an internal market without barriers for electricity flows, supplying sustainable and secure electricity, has led to a decline in electricity prices. Therefore, renewable shares, degree of competition, cross border flows as well as fossil fuel prices and demand for electricity serve as explaining variables in a fixed/random effects model. The results suggest a significant impact of renewable energies, competition and market integration on wholesale electricity prices. Moreover, the analysis displays that increasing RE levies offset the decline in energy supply costs, which results in increasing retail prices.