Quotas, tariffs or auctions?

The methods for promoting renewable energy has been under debate for some time and the raised ambitions from the EU in terms coverage from renewables in the energy balance will probably put more focus on them.  A communication from the Commission (reported on this site) showed that the quota system surely delivered at low-cost but with some difficulties to reach the amounts aimed for. A report from Cambridge has discussed and compared the methods further and shows that comparisons have to take into account also country-specific conditions for comparisons to be fair. An interesting discussion in this paper also concerns the competion on the market for different "links" in the value-chain. In Germany where the feed-in tariffs have been constructed partly to reflect market competition development the ministries have recently reported on the situation and the outlook for the future.

So there is plenty of food for a continued discussion and for development and experiments with the measures.