Renewables in Europe: A roadmap for fundamental reform

Subsidies have proven successful at bolstering the share of electricity generated from renewable sources across Europe, but have also created some nasty side effects. Those undesirable consequences could be rectified by a more market-based approach, writes Peter Styles

Europe's approach to decarbonisation and renewable electricity needs to be fundamentally redesigned. That approach must provide for a completely market-based framework, which is fully harmonised between European Union member states. Although the current framework has promoted the rapid development of renewable energy, renewable power generators enjoy a high degree of immunity from the operation of the wholesale electricity market. Rather than assisting in the completion of a European single