Evolution of Global Electricity Markets

Chapter 5

The Growing Impact of Renewable Energy in European Electricity Markets

Reinhard Haas, Hans Auer, Gustav Resch and Georg Lettner,    Energy Economics Group, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

1 Introduction

Despite the high costs, generating electricity from renewable energy sources is considered as environmentally benign (Resch et al., 2008). In recent years, due to generous support schemes in a number of countries, electricity generation from renewables is growing at a remarkable rate as illustrated in Figure 5.1 for EU-27 countries between 1990 and 2010. The growth of “new” renewables excluding hydro is even more impressive over the same period from less than 1% to about 9%, mainly from wind and biomass (Figure 5.2).