Energy Policy

Key findings:

• The design of policy mixes for renewable energy support will benefit from two complementary perspectives when studying policy impact: strategic intent and specific impact domain (DownloadOssenbrink et al., in pressvertical_align_bottom)
• The EU energy policy mix is contested among major industry actors. Major conflict lines include the ambition to support renewables and the degree of (de-)centralization of the electricity system (DownloadLindberg et al., in pressvertical_align_bottom)
• Additional incentives from energy policies are necessary to support electric utilities when targeting system integration of renewable energies (DownloadFrei and Sinsel, 2018vertical_align_bottom)
• Feed-in policy design is essential to shape different configurations of self-consumption in the field of PV (DownloadOssenbrink, 2017vertical_align_bottom)
• Policies targeting energy efficiency can also generate innovation effects, which is often overlooked (DownloadGirod et al., 2017vertical_align_bottom).
• Energy policy making should consider that belief based approaches explain the adoption of innovation better than economic models (DownloadGirod et al., 2017vertical_align_bottom).
• Deployment policies have to be designed carefully to avoid technology lock-in. Application specific policies may equally contribute to lock-in as technology specific policies (DownloadSchmidt et. al. 2016vertical_align_bottom).
• Major changes in energy policies depend on coalitions of actors with diverging interests. Advances in renewable energy technology have made major policy changes easier (DownloadMarkard et al. 2016vertical_align_bottom).
• Feed-in tariffs have a major impact in stimulating the uptake of renewable energies such as PV or biogas in the energy sector (DownloadHoppmann et al. 2013vertical_align_bottom, DownloadHoppmann et al. 2014vertical_align_bottom; DownloadMarkard et al. 2016vertical_align_bottom)
• As actors and technologies may react very dynamically and in unforeseen ways to policies, continuous adaptation of energy policies is crucial (DownloadHoppmann et al. 2014vertical_align_bottom)
• Photovoltaics, which benefited very much from policy support in the past, becomes increasingly independent and is already economically attractive without feed-in tariffs in many regions of the world (DownloadLang et al. 2014vertical_align_bottom)
• To be efficient, the design of deployment policies should take into account the profitability gap of new technologies, such as energy storage technologies (DownloadBattke and Schmidt 2015vertical_align_bottom)
• When designing and implementing deployment policies, or transferring them to new contexts, political legitimacy is central (DownloadHuenteler et al. 2012vertical_align_bottom)
• The effect of deployment policies on new energy technologies may be very much moderated by informal institutions such as professional culture or social context (DownloadWirth et al. 2013vertical_align_bottom)
• Electricity market liberalization has profoundly changed existing organizational and market structures, thereby also opening up opportunities for major transformation and strategy changes of utility companies (DownloadMarkard and Truffer, 2006vertical_align_bottom)