Les chercheurs de l’Université catholique de Louvain (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, KUL) en Belgique se penche sur l’éventualité d’un système de certificat européen pour l’électricité produite à partir des énergies renouvelables.
The EU has committed itself to ambitious targets for renewable energy sources (RES), combined heat and power (CHP) and energy efficiency by 2010. However, the choice of support measures, mainly between so-called ‘feed-in tariffs’ and ‘green certificates,’ remains up the member states.
In a 2005 progress report, the Commission assessed the efficiency of different national support measures and considered that a harmonised European support scheme for renewable electricity as « premature » (EURACTIV 8 Dec. 2006).
In this analysis, researchers at the Electrical Energy Research Group (KUL, Leuven) say feed-in tariffs would represent a heavy burden on the Belgian public budget while failing to provide renewable energy producers with a genuine incentive to work in a cost-efficient way.
On the other hand, the researchers indicate that certificates (quota system) introduce market mechanisms and trade in renewable energies, thus allowing for the creation of a distinct market for sustainable energy production. As the study reveals, this generates extra allowances for RES and CHP investments – these latter being compensated for by the environmental benefits they provide. This way, producers are given an incentive to work cost-efficiently.
However, the researchers argue that the certificate system can be flawed by price fluctuations. They this can be resolved by a future market with long-term contracts, by allowing borrowing and banking, or by creating floor and ceiling prices. Such solutions are optimal only if the market acquires a certain size – hence the idea of an international trade of certificates. In this perspective, the researches argue that a European market will have the advantage of cost-effectiveness (since renewable plants would be situated at the most-suited locations where resources are available) while avoiding cross-border distortion. Eventually, in the longer run, it could also be integrated within the CO2 emission trading systems, the researchers suggest.
In conclusion, the researchers say that, if the option of a single European certificate system would be chosen, this would represent a serious challenge, as evidenced by the Belgian experience. In their efforts to harmonise three regional certificate systems and a series of federal ones, Belgian regulators have realised how significant remaining differences in an integrated system could be. For example, different time frames for the certificate trade and a diversity of alternative support schemes across a considered territory may not lead to major distortions threatening the well-functioning of the market. According to the researchers, these are viable differences as long as essential conditions are fulfilled, namely: reciprocity, possibility of cross-subsidies, and sufficient communication on the remaining specificities.