support systems for the diffusion of renewable energy technologies an investor perspective concern over climate change impacts and the projected depletion of fossil fuels has urged more governments to adopt policies that stimulate the diffusion of renewable energy technologies ret with an increasingly diverse suite of support instruments the question emerges as to which instruments or combinations are able to achieve faster more substantial diffusion results although various support instruments were extensively addressed in policy studies there is still no consensus this is partly because many policy studies take a policy maker approach in comparing support instruments leaving relationships between policy design and policy results as a black box this paper proposes an investor oriented perspective to analyze the diffusion potential of support systems for ret the main argument is that it is not the type of support instrument but rather its risk profitability characteristics that influence investor behavior and the rate of diffusion the two instruments most frequently discussed and compared are the feed in tariff and the quota model the analysis in this paper concludes that policy design is crucial while often feed in tariffs are applauded and quota system feared feed in tariffs may also bring about disappointing diffusion results when poorly designed while quota systems may be also conceived as attractive instruments for independent power producers

assessing the performance of renewable electricity support instruments abstract the performance of feed in tariffs and tradable certificates is assessed on criteria of efficacy efficiency equity and institutional feasibility in the early stage of transition to an energy system based entirely on renewable energy supplies renewable electricity can only thrive if support takes into account the specific technical economic and political problems which result from embedding this electricity in conventional power systems whose technology organizational structure environmental responsibility and general mission differ profoundly from the emerging renewable based system support schemes need to capture the diversity of power supplies the variable nature of some renewable supplies and their different attributes for the purposes of public policy they must take into account the variety of generators including small decentralized generation emerging in a renewable based system and the new relationships between generators and customers renewable energy policies need a clear point of reference because the incumbent power systems are not sustainable they must adapt to the requirements of the renewable ones not the other way round incumbent systems carry the responsibility of paying the transition something that corresponds best with the polluter pays principle

project finance and international energy development this paper explores the preference for and the features unique to project finance one of the favoured vehicles for funding energy development our main focus is on the interests of project sponsors commercial banks and host governments inclusion of the latter reflects the fact host governments are often leading participants in primary energy and energy related projects more recently they have come to use limited recourse structures to finance local infrastructure development traditional analyses whilst providing useful insights into the interests of leading project participants are incapable of isolating a single motive or set of motives that can comprehensively account for all of the features common to this form of debt within an options theoretic framework most of these ambiguities are resolved risk management long recognised as one of the primary reasons for choosing project finance over rival debt structures is affirmed as a key explanatory factor on the other hand options pricing theory provides a radically different perspective on how project finance contributes to the realisation of these objectives

how sustainable entrepreneurs engage in institutional change insights from biomass torrefaction in the netherlands sustainable entrepreneurship often requires a purposeful change to the existing business environment market regulations and societal norms and values institutions to ensure sustainable products and services become legitimate and competitive yet how sustainable entrepreneurs alter or create institutions remains unclear we employ a two year comparative case study with four entrepreneurs commercializing torrefied biomass in the netherlands consistent with insights from institutional entrepreneurship research findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs create new symbols theorize construct new measures build consensus and forge new relations to alter or create new institutions moreover we find that entrepreneurial collaboration in the form of a trade association has three feedback effects it creates accessible modes diversity of scope and an increased scale of institutional change strategies we conclude that future studies should further connect sustainable and institutional entrepreneurship research and take group and individual factors into account when explaining how sustainable entrepreneurs engage in institutional change

on the existence of conjectural equilibria with a priori chosen rationing patterns hahn s model of conjectural equilibrium hahn 1978 is investigated a proof of existence of non walrasian conjectural equilibrium for a regular economy is given the method used enables one to choose a priori and within a large class the rationing pattern to emerge in equilibrium for instance an equilibrium with a rationing pattern of general supply rationing is thereby shown to exist also it is possible to select a priori one commodity money which is never rationed these results are valid for the fix price model as well the method of our proof is basically a generalization of gale s method gale 1978

on supply constrained equilibria abstract the paper gives sufficient conditions for the existence of an equilibrium with price rigidities and quantity rationing where i demand is never rationed ii net trades of an a priori chosen numeraire are never rationed and iii supply is rationed only when relative prices are downward rigid

sustainable business models as boundary spanning systems of value transfers abstract sustainable innovation requires collaboration across organizational boundaries hence in this research we take a boundary spanning perspective on the business model this perspective focuses on how value is created and captured across organizational boundaries by investigating the value transfers between the focal organization and the external network of business model actors we analyze the business models of 64 innovative sustainable organizations from the netherlands in terms of how environmental and social sustainability is manifested in the content structure and governance of their business models we find that environmental sustainability is mainly represented in value creation content whereas social sustainability is achieved by serving underprivileged user groups and mainly is reflected in value capture content we observe that social sustainability in both for profit and non profit organizations is often achieved by having an imbalance in value exchanges that is compensated elsewhere in the business model in terms of business model structure we show that sustainable organizations use the same underlying business model structures as can be found in conventional firms all in all we demonstrate that analyzing the environmental and social sustainability of organizations using the boundary spanning perspective on business models provides complementary insights to the traditional component based view of the business model

a historical review of promotion strategies for electricity from renewable energy sources in eu countries abstract the core objective of this paper is to elaborate on historically implemented promotion strategies of renewable energy sources and the associated deployment within the european electricity market hence at a first glance the historic development of renewable energy sources in the electricity res e sector is addressed on member state and on sectoral level as well as consequently discussed according to available res e potentials and costs the specific focus of this paper are promotion strategies for res e options as they are the key driver of an efficient and effective res e deployment therefore the paper depicts the main types of different promotion schemes and their properties additionally several cases studies of different european member states show an in depth analysis of the different res e promotion schemes in this context special emphasises are put on the question of effective and efficient promotion scheme designs of different res e technologies generally conducted research led to the conclusion that technology specific financial support measures of res e performed much more effective and efficient than others did hence it is not all about the common question of feed in tariffs vs quota systems based on tradable green certificates but more about the design criteria of implemented res e support schemes

an analysis of australia s large scale renewable energy target restoring market confidence in 2001 australia introduced legislation requiring investment in new renewable electricity generating capacity the legislation was significantly expanded in 2009 to give effect to a 20 renewable energy target ret importantly the policy was introduced with bipartisan support and is consistent with global policy trends in this article we examine the history of the policy and establish that the stop start nature of renewable policy development has resulted in investors withholding new capital until greater certainty is provided we utilise the methodology from simshauser and nelson 2012 to examine whether capital market efficiency losses would occur under certain policy scenarios the results show that electricity costs would increase by between 51 million and 119 million if the large scale ret is abandoned even after accounting for avoided renewable costs our conclusions are clear we find that policymakers should be guided by a high level public policy principle in relation to large scale renewable energy policy constant review is not reform

a remark on conjectural equilibria the notion of a conjectural equilibrium was introduced by hahn 1978 the underlying idea is to explain why prices may not change in a situation where markets do not clear and rationing occurs in a conjectural equilibrium prices are rigid because it is not in the interest of agents to change them more precisely agents conjecture prices at which they can achieve a trade beyond the given quantity constraints such that it is better for them to trade at the observed market prices within the constraints therefore the question of whether an allocation for given prices and quantity constraints is a conjectural equilibrium depends crucially on the agents conjectures in this situation by allowing arbitrary conjectures many such equilibria will exist as has already been claimed by hahn 1977 a 1977b and 1978 in this note it is shown that there are as many conjectural equilibria as there exist fixed price equilibria which satisfy the condition of voluntary exchange only to be more specific we prove that any conjectural equilibrium is a fixed price equilibrium and that for a given economy there are conjectures such that any fixed price equilibrium is a conjectural equilibrium in other words the kind of endogenous price setting described in hahn s model turns out to be equivalent to the fix price approach in the sense that both lead to the same allocations in the economy the result confirms the statement in drazen 1980 that by allowing arbitrary conjectures only one exogenous variable prices has been replaced by another conjectures

is the merchant power producer a broken model deregulated energy markets were founded on the merchant power producer a stand alone generator that sold its production to the spot and short term forward markets underpinned by long dated project finance the initial enthusiasm that existed for investment in existing and new merchant power plant capacity shortly after power system deregulation has progressively dissipated following an excess entry result in this article we demonstrate why this has become a global trend using debt sizing parameters typically used by project banks we model a benchmark plant then re simulate its performance using live energy market price data and find that such financings are no longer feasible in the absence of long term power purchase agreements

the economic costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions under a u s national renewable electricity mandate the electricity sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions ghgs in the u s many states have passed and congress has considered renewable portfolio standards rps mandates that specific percentages of electricity be generated from renewable resources we perform a technical and economic assessment and estimate the economic costs and net ghg reductions from a national 25 percent rps by 2025 relative to coal based electricity this policy would reduce ghg emissions by about 670 million metric tons per year 11 percent of 2008 u s emissions the first 100 million metric tons could be abated for less than 36 metric ton however marginal costs climb to 50 for 300 million metric tons and to as much as 70 metric ton to fulfill the rps the total economic costs of such a policy are about 35 billion annually we also examine the cost sensitivity to favorable and unfavorable technology development assumptions we find that a 25 percent rps would likely be an economically efficient method for utilities to substantially reduce ghg emissions only under the favorable scenario these estimates can be compared with other approaches including increased r d funding for renewables or deployment of efficiency and or other low carbon generation technologies

future proof tariff design recovering sunk grid costs in a world where consumers are pushing back abstract traditional analysis of distribution network tariff design assumes a lack of alternatives to grid connection for the fulfilment of consumers electricity needs this is radically changing with breakthroughs in two technologies 1 photovoltaics pv enable domestic and commercial consumers to self produce energy 2 batteries allow consumers and self producers to gain control over their grid energy and capacity parameters contributing to the state of the art the grid cost recovery problem for the distribution system operator dso is modelled as a non cooperative game between consumers in this game the availability and costs of the two named technologies strategically interact with tariff structures four states of the world for user s access to technologies are distinguished and three tariff structures are evaluated the assessed distribution network tariff structures are energy volumetric charges with net metering energy volumetric charges for both injection and withdrawal and capacity based charges results show that in a state of the world with new technology choices for grid users both efficiency and equity issues can arise when distribution network charges are ill designed

a literature review of economic studies on carbon pricing and australian wholesale electricity markets abstract with the ongoing development of australian anthropogenic climate change mitigation policies there has been a steady increase in modelling studies undertaken to estimate australian carbon prices and their impact on existing electricity markets this article summarises some of the more prominent studies completed by many of australia s foremost economic modelling firms we developed a simple approach for testing the consistency of these studies and their findings in relation to carbon pass through unfortunately we have established that the studies are entirely inconsistent in their estimation of carbon pass through furthermore we were unable to establish why the estimation of carbon pass through varies so significantly this has important implications for policy makers given much of the compensation to be paid to households and businesses under the clean energy future package is predicated on simple assumptions of carbon pass through based upon our analysis of these economic studies our conclusion is that australian policy makers are best guided by relying upon the numerous a posteriori estimations of pass through in the european union emissions trading scheme ets rather than australian a priori studies

solar energy markets economics and policies abstract solar energy has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years due to both technological improvements resulting in cost reductions and government policies supportive of renewable energy development and utilization this study analyzes the technical economic and policy aspects of solar energy development and deployment while the cost of solar energy has declined rapidly in the recent past it still remains much higher than the cost of conventional energy technologies like other renewable energy technologies solar energy benefits from fiscal and regulatory incentives including tax credits and exemptions feed in tariff preferential interest rates renewable portfolio standards and voluntary green power programs in many countries the emerging carbon credit markets are expected to provide additional incentives to solar energy deployment however the scale of incentives provided by the existing carbon market instruments such as the clean development mechanism of the kyoto protocol is limited despite the huge technical potential the development and large scale deployment of solar energy technologies world wide still has to overcome a number of technical financial regulatory and institutional barriers the continuation of policy supports might be necessary for several decades to maintain and enhance the growth of solar energy in both developed and developing countries

the doping effect of italian feed in tariffs on the pv market abstract in less than six years italy has become one of the leading markets for pv power plants and one of the countries in the world with the largest number of installations and installed peak power such a quick and large growth is due to a series of feed in tariff schemes that have been uncapped until 2012 as a matter of fact any size or any number of pv power plants could be installed during a period of three years since the feed in tariffs are not paid by national taxes but are charged on the electricity bills italian energy users are now due to pay each year a surcharge of 9 billion euros on their energy bills this paper aims at discussing this development by highlighting the benefits but also some significant drawbacks that the application of uncontrolled feed in tariffs has produced

a resource based view of opportunities to transform australia s electricity sector abstract proponents of low carbon transformation face an uphill battle to reconfigure incumbent energy systems against powerful interests protecting the status quo australia s electricity sector is an example of such a system wedded to fossil fuels and backed by much of the country s political establishment this paper addresses the potential for low carbon transformation in australia s electricity sector it explores the complex and uncertain dynamics shaping the sector and outlines how these can be understood through the lens of strategic agency with an eye for opportunities to drive a shift to renewables it reviews the dynamics of change and re stability shaping australia s electricity sector between 2006 and 2015 and applies a resource based view of transformative agency to analyse these dynamics results show the sector suffers multiple stressors and emphasise disruptive changes in the pipeline critically many of these transformative dynamics stem from factors outside the influence of the electricity sector and its supporters while results do not point to a clear trajectory or outcome of transformation they indicate the uptake of small scale solar photovoltaic pv systems by households and small business will play a defining role in the sector s future configuration furthermore the exploration of transformative dynamics affecting the electricity sector through a resource based lens shows that many opportunities exist for strategic agents to intervene in support of a disruptive shift to renewables the paper suggests a range of mechanisms that agents could use to undermine the strength of fossil energy in the electricity sector and encourage a shift to renewables

vertical integration credit ratings and retail price settings in energy only markets navigating the resource adequacy problem abstract energy only markets are prone to the resource adequacy problem i e the timely entry of new plant the reason for this is that competitive energy only markets struggle to be remunerative given reliability constraints and market price caps historically australia s 45 000 mw national electricity market has managed to navigate this well understood problem albeit with government entities directly or indirectly responsible for a surprisingly large 73 of all new plant investments to 2007 but government involvement in direct investment has now ceased so what will enable the industry to navigate the resource adequacy problem into the future quite simply industrial organisation the presence of merchant utilities with investment grade credit ratings and setting any regulated retail prices or price to beat with an lrmc floor

a review of governmental support instruments channeling pv market growth in the flanders region of belgium 2006 2013 abstract how did a country in the middle of western europe starting almost from scratch reach the european top 3 in terms of solar pv capacity in five years and what were the costs we provide a systematic chronological review of the different governmental support instruments that drove the exponential growth of the solar energy market in the flanders region of belgium and calculate their relative contributions the results of the economic calculations show that green electricity certificates had by far the greatest effect on both the rise and stagnation of the market costing about 1 5 billion euro only for 2006 2013 the long term societal costs of such growth proved to be even higher 6 7 billion for 2014 2031 and unevenly distributed with residents paying the highest price via their energy bills companies continuously adapted their organizations to enact the available support instruments counter intuitively the substantial support shifted the attention of companies to the larger systems even though the incentive for investment in pv was lower than for the smaller systems

optimal capital structure and project financing abstract we examine the financing and incorporation modes for new projects there are two objectives the first is to provide a theory of optimal capital structure that links risk leverage and value and is particularly applicable to large firms counter to conventional wisdom we show riskier firms acquire more debt pay higher interest rates and have higher values in equilibrium second we provide an economic rationale for project financing which entails organizing a new project legally distinct from the firm s other assets we explain why project financing involves higher leverage than conventional financing and why highly risky assets are project financed

on intermittent renewable generation the stability of australia s national electricity market abstract energy only markets have an inherently unstable equilibrium even under ideal conditions because participants are unable to optimise voll events the addition of intermittent renewable generation is thought to make conditions harder in this article optimal voll events in an islanded nem region is modelled by substituting high price caps for boiteux capacity charges then analysing the impact of adding progressively more variable renewable energy vre up to 35 market share spot market conditions prove stable and tractable provided thermal plant exit and adjust perfectly but vre asset allocation is important absent highly elastic demand or ultra low cost storage solar pv market share has economic limits because the technology rapidly cannibalises itself furthermore as vre rises in imperfectly interconnected regions a tipping point appears to exist where hedge markets enter an unstable zone through shortages of asset backed firm intra regional swaps and caps government initiated cfds for vre need to be designed carefully to ensure any instability is not exacerbated by extracting contracts from an already shortening hedge market

deregulation and restructuring of the global electricity supply industry and its impact upon power plant suppliers abstract this paper analyses the deregulation and restructuring of the global electricity supply industry and its impact upon fuel usage generation technologies and suppliers of power plant deregulation encouraged the growth of new independent power producers whose business requirements transformed the power plant industry the plant suppliers had to develop new capabilities and services to compete in the global market economies of scale and scope became crucial given the cost of developing the new technologies and providing the services required by the operators this led to the global consolidation of the power plant industry because only large integrated power engineering companies had the necessary resources and capabilities to compete in the new global environment

determining commercially viable two way and one way contract for difference strike prices and revenue receipts abstract in this article we investigate the role that a contract for difference cfd might play in increasing investment in renewable energy in australia two cfd schemes are investigated two way and one way cfd a financial model is developed that determines commercially viable cfd strike prices account is taken of revenue from wholesale electricity market and renewable energy certificate sales capital and operational costs of the project including distribution of funds to holders of equity and debt are also included findings based on analysis of the solar array located at the university of queensland gatton campus in australia is presented employing a typical meteorological year framework the major finding was that government will prefer a two way cfd scheme and single axis tracking solar pv array technology in contrast project proponents will strongly prefer a one way cfd design

financing alternative energy projects an examination of challenges and opportunities for local government abstract local government in australia has a strong collective capacity to reduce ghg emissions through policies funding allocation to renewable energy projects and the delivery of programs and services this study examines the institutional capacity of councils in sydney and how this impacts on decisions to invest in alternative energy projects we find greenhouse gas emission targets of councils are strongly aligned to national targets but do not reflect the local council s institutional capacity political leadership or strategic priorities energy reduction projects are often identified and undertaken by environmental staff without support from financial staff or financial evaluation tools an absence of national guidelines to provide consistency in tracking and reporting limits cross sector benchmarking street lighting contributes to a significant proportion of council s total electricity expenditure and ghg emission profile being highly regulated existing contracts and the current practice of street lighting services limits the councils ability to reduce emissions based on our analysis we recommend a number of measures to overcome these constraints including the use of financial evaluation tools for small scale renewable energy projects a standardised national tracking and reporting platform to facilitate progress reporting and meaningful comparative analysis between councils and policy reform to the regulation of street lighting

how renewables will change electricity markets in the next five years photovoltaic pv cells onshore wind turbines internet technologies and storage technologies have the potential to fundamentally change electricity markets in the years ahead photovoltaic cells are the most disruptive energy technology as they allow consumers of all sizes to produce power by themselves new actors in the power market can begin operating with a new bottom up control logic unsubsidised pv markets may start to take off in 2013 fuelling substantial growth where pv power is getting cheaper than grid or diesel backup electricity for commercial consumers managing loads and achieving a good match between power consumption and weather dependent power production will likely become a key issue this consumption production balance may trigger massive innovation and investment in energy management technologies involving different kinds of storage and controls increasing autonomy and flexibility of consumers challenges the top down control logic of traditional power supply and pushes for a more decentralised and multi layered system how rapidly and smoothly this transformation occurs depends to a large extent on the adaptation speed of the regulatory framework and on the ability of market players to develop appropriate business models the paper discusses conflicts of interest hurdles and drivers opportunities and traps for this perspective

a model of imperfect competition with keynesian features the recent literature on the reappraisal of keynes has viewed keynesian equilibria as arising when prices are fixed and effective demands and supplies are equilibrated through the adjustment of quantities one problem with this approach is that it lacks a theory of price determination in particular of why prices are fixed in the present paper we show that a number of keynesian features arise in a model in which prices are fully flexible but where agents have some monopoly power one advantage of this approach is that it provides a theory of the determination of both prices and quantities

the solar photovoltaic feed in tariff scheme in new south wales australia solar photovoltaic pv electricity systems are part of australia s energy supply matrix in the case of new south wales nsw the state government has had to deal with a complex policy problem in order to play its role in the federal small scale renewable energy scheme the nsw government initiated the 7 year solar bonus scheme in 2010 however in attempting to maximise community investment in small scale solar pv systems it relied on faulty financial modelling that applied a generous feed in tariff fit and underestimated the level of investor participation and installed capacity consequently the scheme has resulted in very high public costs that will require policy changes that bring investors and energy retailers into conflict and unpopular electricity retail price adjustments this paper uses a structured case and stakeholder analysis to critically analyse the fit policy while also highlighting important lessons for policymakers engaging in fit design

in the transformation of energy systems what is holding australia back abstract australia has had a strong gdp growth rate is endowed with a diversity of renewable energy resources yet has been unable to unshackle its dependency on fossil fuels our study identifies causes underlying australia s underachievement in its transformation towards a renewable energy economy we apply a combined mixed methods case study and multi criteria analysis to evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions and energy targets policies and programs of four australian prime ministers between 1996 and 2015 we identify four high impact factors that contribute to australia s underachievement the prime minister s political stance on climate and energy is critical in setting the direction of government the absence of target driven policy frameworks results in less effective policy outcomes orderly and cost effective energy system transformation requires bipartisan strategic long term planning and substantial capital investment to provide policy certainty and stability that can induce new investment in renewable technologies and industries energy policy is primarily a political and ideological issue not one driven by underlying economic conditions going forward australia must achieve a bipartisan position on climate and energy policy at both federal and state levels this will provide long term certainty and stability to support investment in renewable energy and so doing achieve international emission reduction obligations

comparing the feed in tariff incentives for renewable electricity in ontario and germany the development of feed in tariff fit programs to support green electricity in ontario the green energy and green economy act of 2009 and germany the erneuerbare energien gesetz of 2000 is compared the two policies are highly comparable offering similar rates for most renewable electricity technologies major differences between the policies include the level of differentiation found in the german policy as well as the use of a price degression strategy for fit rates in germany compared to an escalation strategy in ontario the german renewable electricity portfolio is relatively balanced compared to ontario where wind power dominates the portfolio at the federal level canada does not yet have a policy similar to the european directive on renewable energy and this lack may impact decisions taken by manufacturers of renewable technologies who consider establishing operations in the province ontario s green energy and green economy act could be benefit from lessons in the german system especially with regard to degression of feed in tariff rates over time which could significantly reduce payments to producers over the course of a contract and in turn encourage greater competitiveness among renewable power providers in the future

using renewables to hedge against future electricity industry uncertainties an australian case study abstract a generation portfolio modelling was employed to assess the expected costs cost risk and emissions of different generation portfolios in the australian national electricity market nem under highly uncertain gas prices carbon pricing policy and electricity demand outcomes were modelled for 396 possible generation portfolios each with 10 000 simulations of possible fuel and carbon prices and electricity demands in 2030 the lowest expected cost generation portfolio includes 60 renewable energy increasing the renewable proportion to 75 slightly increased expected cost by 0 2 mwh but significantly decreased the standard deviation of cost representing the cost risk increasing the renewable proportion from the present 15 to 75 by 2030 is found to decrease expected wholesale electricity costs by 17 mwh fossil fuel intensive portfolios have substantial cost risk associated with high uncertainty in future gas and carbon prices renewables can effectively mitigate cost risk associated with gas and carbon price uncertainty this is found to be robust to a wide range of carbon pricing assumptions this modelling suggests that policy mechanisms to promote an increase in renewable generation towards a level of 75 by 2030 would minimise costs to consumers and mitigate the risk of extreme electricity prices due to uncertain gas and carbon prices

risk based assessment of the cost efficiency and the effectivity of renewable energy support schemes certificate markets versus feed in tariffs the introduction of renewable energy sources in the electricity generation mix has the potential to reduce power sector s emissions and countries dependence on imported oil climate change concerns and highly volatile oil prices have attracted governments interest and support to sustain investments in renewable energy capacity and different support policies have been implemented in many countries around the world this paper analyzes the effects of investors risk aversion on the performance of support schemes the analysis compares two policy options a feed in tariff mechanism with a certificate market system results show that while a tariff mechanism could obtain better results than a certificate market its performance is strictly dependent on regulator choices a certificate market instead permits to obtain the desired level of renewable energy market share with good cost efficiency as long as investors risk aversion is moderate moreover discounting future cash flows with higher social discount rates further benefits a certificate system making it preferable to feed in tariffs

combining feed in tariffs and net metering schemes to balance development in adoption of photovoltaic energy comparative economic assessment and policy implications for european countries abstract in the last fifteen years europe has been involved in the major development of photovoltaic pv solar energy the kyoto protocol requirements and the european union eu directives to promote the use of renewable energy sources res together with environmental policies introduced for the development and use of alternative energies have generated a large number of market opportunities for this sector differences in the application of energy policies have caused significant imbalances in electricity systems and distortion of electricity prices the main concern of governments is to define the support schemes to be used and how to combine them in the most profitable manner the aim of this paper is to provide a comparative cost effectiveness assessment using feed in tariffs fit and net metering nm schemes in some representative eu countries the authors have developed an economic model to evaluate the profitability of pv projects combining these support schemes results show not only the circumstances under which solar energy is economically profitable but also the kind of pv systems locations minimum levels of tariff prices and specific combination of support schemes that should be promoted

overcoming barriers to wind project finance in australia the wind power industry in australia is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade primarily due to a forthcoming expanded national renewable energy target ret which will mandate that renewable sources provide approximately 20 of australia s electricity production by 2020 however development of new wind generation in australia has stalled as a result of several barriers to project finance the mechanism through which most wind farms have been developed historically this paper provides an overview of wind power financing in australia in light of recent political and financial trends drawing upon existing literature and a series of stakeholder interviews it identifies three primary barriers to project finance regulatory risk surrounding legislation of the ret semi privatization of electricity retailers in new south wales and limited capital availability resulting from the recent global credit crisis the paper concludes that the confluence of these barriers limits the availability of long term contracts that provide revenue certainty for pre construction wind projects while simultaneously making these contracts a necessity in order to obtain project finance in an attempt to mitigate these effects this paper identifies four alternative development strategies that can be pursued