At a time when governments around the world are in the process of liberalising their electricity markets, the increasing competitiveness of renewable energy should lead to higher demand.Without political support, however, renewable energy remains at a disadvantage, marginalised by distortions in the world’s electricity markets created by decades of massive financial, political and structural support to conventional technologies and the failure to internalise environmental and social costs in price of energy. Developing renewables will therefore require strong political and economic efforts, especially through laws that guarantee stable tariffs over a period of up to 20 years. At present new renewable energy generators have to compete with old nuclear and fossil fuelled power stations which produce electricity at marginal costs because consumers and taxpayers have already paid the interest and depreciation on the original investments. Political action is needed to overcome these distortions and create a level playing field. The following is an overview of current political frameworks and barriers that need to be overcome in order to unlock renewable energy’s great potential to become a major contributor to global energy supply. In the process it would also contribute to sustainable economic growth, high quality jobs, technology development, global competitiveness and industrial and research leadership.
 |
|
