Phasing out economic support to mature renewables?
A new report carried out within the EU research project Towards 2030 explores the necessary conditions for a potential ‘phase-out’ of economic support for mature renewable technologies that is compatible with the levels of deployment required to reach the defined EU target of at least 27% renewables in 2030. The study was led by Ecofys with support from Towards 2030 project partners. In the mid-term, it may be possible to increase the share of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) without providing dedicated economic support. Such phase-out of economic support would require two main conditions: firstly, expected future revenues from power markets are sufficiently high to cover generation costs; secondly, the risk tag attached to those revenues has to be acceptable for investors in the energy sector.