The influence of european state aid law on the design of support schemes for electricity from renewable energy sources in Germany and other member states

Abstract

Since 2014, the EU Commission’s Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy 2014-2020 (EEAG) have become the main driver for the progressing convergence of support schemes for electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) in different Member States. The key requirements for the design of RES electricity support schemes are, inter alia, the introduction of auctions to determine the amount of aid and its payment in form of a market premium. These State aid requirements have led to some major changes in the support schemes of different Member States and raised concerns whether the EU Commission is overstepping its competencies. This article summarizes this development with a special focus on the German support scheme (EEG 2014 and EEG 2017) and gives an outlook on the likely future situation for RES electricity support schemes under the currently discussed European legal framework for the years 2021-2030.