Solar Energy: Incentives to Promote PV in EU27

The growth in the use of renewable energies in the EU has been remarkable. Among these energies is PV. The average annual growth rate for the EU-27 countries in installed PV capacity in the period 2005-2012 was 41.2%. While the installed capacity of PV has reached almost 82 % of National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) targets for the EU-27 countries for 2020, it is still far from being used at its full potential. Over recent years, several measures have been adopted in the EU to enhance and promote PV. This paper undertakes a complete review of the state of PV power in Europe and the measures taken to date to promote it in EU-27. 25 countries have adopted measures to promote PV. The most widespread measure to promote PV use is Feed- in Tariffs. Tariffs are normally adjusted, in a decreasing manner, annually. Nevertheless, currently, seven countries have decided to accelerate this decrease rate in view of cost reduction of the installations and of higher efficiencies. The second instrument used to promote PV in the EU-27 countries is the concession of subsidies. Nevertheless, subsidies have the disadvantage of being closely linked to budgetary resources and therefore to budgetary constraints. In most EU countries, subsidies for renewable energy for PV are being lowered. Twelve EU-27 countries adopted tax measures. Low-interest loans and green certificate systems were only sparingly used

Access to sustainable energy in emerging and developing countries: exploring multi-stakeholder partnerships and emerging business models on an international-to-local scale

The critical role of access to energy in developing countries is widely recognized as a condition for sustainable development, given that at present an estimated 1.4 billion people in developing countries still lack access to electricity, while the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) stipulate that the number of people without access to electricity should be less than one billion by 2015. Access to energy can act as an incubator of economic activity and have an important impact on long-term poverty reduction, as it can increase livelihood options by allowing households to engage in a more diverse range of income-generating activities as well as make pre-existing activities more efficient. Given the complex and multi-faced economic, technological and regulatory challenges involved in establishing access to energy in developing countries, and the involvement of a wide spectrum of stakeholders from public, private, and civil societal spheres from international to local levels, establishing access to energy in developing countries goes beyond the scope of individual governments and organizations. In exploring collaborative approaches to this issue, this research project analysed multi-stakeholder partnerships that focus on sustainable energy in developing countries on an international and regional level. Given the importance of involvement of market mechanisms and local-level enterprises for sustainable development for renewable energy technologies (RETs) in developing countries, it also explored how innovative enterprise-based business models help develop this market in a bottom-up fashion. In this report, a theoretical foundation is established through a discussion of academic and professional literature focused on access to sustainable energy in developing and emerging countries, whereby specific attention is given to the body of literature on documented case studies on access to energy initiatives in multiple geographical regions, as well as on the identification of existing business and delivery models developed to establish access to energy in developing countries. This is followed by an exploration of illustrative international-to-regional level partnerships aimed at access to energy in developing countries. In view of the importance of private sector involvement in establishing sustainable solutions to access to energy in developing countries, the report also analyses a few private sector-based business models that have emerged. For the regional and local initiatives, the study concentrated on South-East Asia. The report pays attention to the following initiatives: five international partnerships (Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership; Energy Access Partnership; Global Sustainable Energy Partnership; Global Village Energy Partnership; Global Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves); three regional partnerships (Energy for All Partnership; Energy and Environmental Partnership - Mekong; Rural Income through Sustainable Energy) and four private-sector initiatives (Sunlabob in Laos; Husk Power Systems in India; Kamworks in Cambodia; Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh). The selected cases provide insight in the nature of the actors involved, issue identification, and relation to the delivery and financing models as extracted from recent academic and professional publications. While theoretically a clear-cut distinction between donation-based and market-based models can be made, the analysis shows that multi-stakeholder partnerships (both internationally-focused and regionally-focused) have moved towards increased recognition of involving private sector actors on a local level to further longer-term sustainable development in this market. At the same time, private enterprises do not exclusively build their business model on market mechanisms, but rather have a combination of commercial sales and donor financing, which enhances the importance of collaborative approaches to the issue including public and private actors. That seems to be a gap between high-profile international partnerships on the one hand, and local-level enterprises developing the market in a bottom-up fashion on the other hand. Conclusions are drawn as to the main challenges to sustainable development when it comes to access to energy in developing countries, as well as the extent to which public and private sector actors are involved and collaborate to target the issue, and the importance of stimulating private sector development on this market