On the European level several targets have been set to increase the use of renewable energy sources (RES). The main objective of the EU is to increase the use of RES to 12% of total energy consumption and to about 21% of gross electricity consumption in 2010. Earlier studies show that the wide variety of policies implemented in the past decade and currently active will result in a considerable growth in the use of RES in the European Union. However additional policy effort is needed to stimulate further growth and reach the targets that are set. Monitoring of the progress in meeting the targets is regarded a main input to formulation of future policies.

Fraunhofer ISI leads a consortium of five European institutions, on the project OPTRES “Assessment and optimisation of renewable support schemes in the European electricity market”. The expected results of the project are:

• Clear empirical insights into the present success and failures to support RES-E in Europe on Member State level with a specific focus on policy effectiveness and efficiency.

• Quantitative results on the costs and benefits of future policy options such optimised national and coordinated policy options based on the techno-economic model Green-X.

• Identification of key barriers hampering the development of RES-E on behalf of a stakeholder involvement including in-depth interviews and an internet based questionnaire.

• Detailed definition of best practice criteria for renewable electricity support schemes and barrier mitigation.

• Recommendations for future improvements of the existing promotion measures.

Duration of project: 01/05 – 12/06

Coordinator: Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research

Supported by: DG TREN, European Commission (Intelligent Energy Europe)