In a potentially far-reaching decision, the European Commission has decided that the French system of feed-in tariffs for wind energy on land is not excluded under prohibitions against “state aid,” and is therefore permitted under European Union (EU) regulations.
France FIT
The European Commission has concluded that a French scheme providing support to the production of electricity from on-shore wind installations is compatible with EU state aid rules. Under the scheme, producers of renewable energy are compensated for additional production costs in line with EU guidelines, and do not receive overcompensation.
The French energy regulatory commission (CRE) has announced that 120MW of new solar capacity was connected in the country during the final quarter of 2013 and has confirmed the new tariffs for the first quarter of 2014.
In mid-December, the European Court of Justice ruled that French feed-in tariffs for wind power constitute state aid. The justification seems to revolve around a technicality, but the question is whether the ruling will affect feed-in tariffs throughout the EU – or whether the decision is truly only pertinent to French wind power.
Anyway, it is quite clear from the new decision that the PreussenElektra standard still stands. And if the present German system in some way or other leaves the area of “purchase by means of their own financial resources”, there are two possible answers to solving that problem.
The Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, eventually published in April the long awaited order providing a feed-in tariff for electricity produced by wind turbines with storage in cyclonic areas.
The measures will take place when a decree is published later this year. They are seen as being interim measures as the new government formulates a wider energy policy framework. . .
Projects which will add 1,150 MW of capacity are expected to be completed this year, compared to none last year. Clear evidence surely that feed-in tariffs do what they say they do. . .
The author traces the evolution of feed-in tariffs – the most successful and most widely used support mechanism for renewable electricity – in Germany, Spain and France. He reveals increasing cross-national policy similarities in feed-in tariff design – despite the failure of harmonizing instruments at the European level. He explains these increasing policy similarities by applying policy convergence theory. . .
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