Project R-13046

Quo vadis, European renewable energy support law? (Research)

In spite of its ever rising importance, the supranational law that governs the supportive financing of renewable energy projects remains fragmented, while the EU seems to be lacking a clear and strategic vision for its role in the design, enactment and implementation of support schemes. This inconclusiveness impedes assertive and effective legal action, which, in its turn, gives rise to disputes and regulatory failures, and in the end threatens the smooth and sustainable attainment of the energy transition. In this regard, this research project investigates how secondary EU renewable energy support law should evolve. It aspires to put forward a normative theory on how this emergent area of law should further develop in an autonomous way so that it can ensure a viable and functional renewable energy support landscape. It employs legal research, but also law and economics analysis (and elements of political sciences analysis), with the aim a) to elucidate the role of the EU in this field, b) to identify and comprehend the principles that govern the discipline, c) to critically assess the limited body of rules on support schemes that can be currently found in secondary EU law, and d) to appraise the merits of introducing one or more supranational support schemes for renewable energy sources. The steps of the research project also involve an active internationalisation and solidification of an international network (research stays, international workshop).

01 October 2022 - 30 September 2025