EU Policies and Regulation on CO2, Renewables and Energy Efficiency: A Critical Assessment of Recent Experiences - Green Energy and Efficiency: An Economic Perspective - page 33

The following table summarises the main supporting frameworks in place, listed by
country and by the type of technology involved (Table 2 ).
In what follows the main results of these supporting frameworks are analysed
from an empirical perspective and in terms of their effectiveness and ef

ciency,
using the progress reports issued by the European Commission (Renewable Energy
Progress Report COM [ 27 ], p. 175) and the Status Review of Renewable and
Energy Ef ciency Support Schemes in Europe of 25 June 2013, published by the

CEER. This information serves as the basis for the conclusions drawn and for
justifying the proposals made in Sect. 2.2 .
The report drawn up by the European Commission starts by analysing the extent
to which the targets that marked out the course of the Directive for the years 2012/
2012 were reached. It then goes on to analyse the prospects for future growth in
terms of meeting the target for 2020. In this latter case, it looks at the gap between
what was planned for each technology (targets) and the estimated future roll-out, in
terms of the current regulatory and economic conditions.
As regards diagnosing the extent to which targets are now being met, the
Commission seems optimistic. As a result of the implementation of the Renewables
Directive and the national measures de

ned in the plans of action on renewable
energy, most Member States have witnessed signi cant growth in renewable energy

since the previous report on the matter was drafted by the Commission. 17 In fact,
the quota for renewable energies in twenty Member States and in the EU as a whole
in 2010 was the same as or higher than the commitments for that year stated in their
national plans and higher than the

rst intermediate target for 2011/2012. 18 As can
be seen in the following bar chart, most of this success is due to the high degree of
implementation of renewables in the electricity sector. In the transport sector, 22
Member States failed to attain their indicative target of 5.75 % for 2010 (Fig. 5 ).
Looking ahead, the Commission appears to be less optimistic. The economic
crisis, the current obstacles in terms of administrative issues and infrastructure and
changes in policies and supporting frameworks all suggest that a fall-off in future
investments is highly likely, compared to the levels of investment planned in the
renewable energy plans of the Member States. Nonetheless, there are differences in
this trend depending on the technology. While wind power (onshore and offshore),
biomass and biofuels predictably fail to attain the levels planned for them, solar
photovoltaic is set to exceed its planned level as a result of disproportionate growth
due to a supporting framework that has offered incentives not linked to changes in
costs for this technology.
In the case of wind power, the European Commission report points out that
according to the Member State plans, wind power capacity should reach 213 GW in
2020 (169 GW on land and 44 GW offshore). This capacity would lead to wind

17 Renewable Energy: Progressing towards the 2020 Target (COM (2011), p. 31 and SEC(2011),
p. 130).
18 The interim targets are included in the indicative trajectory provided in Annex I, Part B, of
Directive [ 6 ] 2009/28/EC. The interim target for the EU for 2011/2012 was 10.7 %.