dear Oskar,

Please have a look at the following :

What are some of the major barriers to adopting renewable energy sources?

Factors influencing economic and financial barriers are high initial capital, lack of financial institutes, lack of investors, competition from fossil fuels, and fewer subsidies compared to traditional fuel (Raza et al., 2015). These factors have prevented renewable energy from becoming widespread.

What are the technical barriers to renewable energy?

· Technical barriers to renewable energy development include inadequate technology and lack of infrastructure necessary to support the technologies. From a study conducted by (18), in Saskatchewan, Canada, technology was identified as one of the main barriers to the willingness to invest in wind-generated electricity.

What discourages renewable energy?

· Another factor that discourages use of renewable energy is that coal power requires fewer workers to produce high amounts of energy compared to renewable energy sources. For example, in the USA, solar energy industries employ more workers compared to coal industries; (337807 and 160119 respectively) (12).

MAJOR BARRIERS TO ADOPTING RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES IN FINLAND

Decentralized energy production offers households considerable potential to support the attainment of climate targets. This study focuses on solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption in Finland, where the adoption of solar PV systems is still at a low level. The study asks how adopters have overcome the barriers to adopting solar PV systems. A special interest lies in the user experience of solar PV systems. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain an understanding of the experiences of Finnish pioneer households. The results show that the adopters have overcome the barriers to adoption with the help of trustworthy information and advice from experts and from other adopters. The adopters are very satisfied with their PV plants even though economic profitability is not particularly good. The adopters actively monitor their energy production and are highly engaged in domestic energy matters. Many have enlarged their solar PV system or plan to do so, or are highly interested in upgrading their energy system with an electric car or advanced home automation. The adopters find pleasure in producing pollution-free energy effortlessly and being able to deliver information about clean energy production to others through their own installations.

European Commissioner Kadri Simson in January 2021, shared a vision of a future where Europe could be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and reduce at least 55% of emissions by 2030. The increase required in renewables to achieve these ambitions is huge, indeed, renewable energy sources must at least be doubled in all sectors.

Tereza Borges, International Business Development at Lumenaza, speaks to Open Access Government about the EU’s Clean Energy Package and whether or not it realises the potential of distributed green energy. She also defines renewable energy communities, citizen energy communities and collective self-consumption. Also covered here, is the progress achieved by adopting the directives of the Clean Energy Package and the remaining barriers to the full-scale adoption of renewables.

Does the EU’s Clean Energy Package realise the potential of distributed green energy? By 2030, the EU aims to have reduced emissions by 55% compared to 1990 levels. This entails increasing the share of intermittent renewables, which requires a fundamental change in how the energy system works.

We need a decentralised, distributed system in which prosumers, energy communities and collective self-consumption take centre-stage. Their role as crucial drivers of the energy transition has been acknowledged by the EU in its Clean Energy Package, one of the instruments to realise the ambitions of the European Green Deal.

The package specifies legislation that Member States must adopt regarding renewable energy communities (RECs), citizen energy communities (CECs) and collective self-consumption (CSC).

What are renewable energy communities, citizen energy communities and collective self-consumption?

In simple terms, RECs bring together a group of stakeholders that invest in, produce and sell renewable energy. CECs, which don’t necessarily focus purely on renewables, place importance on independence from traditional energy suppliers and push for decision- making power for the community. Within either RECs or CECs, CSC refers to the community consuming the energy it produces, turning its members into prosumers.

What progress has been made in adopting the directives of the Clean Energy Package? In 2020, most EU Member States made significant progress transposing the Clean Energy Package’s directives into national laws. This process is set to continue this year as further implementation deadlines approach.

In Austria, the comprehensive Renewable Expansion Act makes it possible to produce, store, consume and sell renewable energy in energy communities. Additional support instruments, including reduced grid tariffs and an energy tax exemption, are also in progress. Spain, France and Italy now allow the use of the public grid for CSC, while most other members are currently limiting CSC to private wires such as those found in multi-apartment homes. On the other hand, some Member States, including Germany, have not yet introduced a CSC concept to their frameworks. Once progressive in its support for renewables, Germany is currently lagging considerably behind due to its slow progress on digitalisation, as evident in its sluggish smart meter rollout.

What are the remaining barriers to the full-scale adoption of renewables?

For the directives of the Clean Energy Package to take full effect, Europe needs to accelerate its efforts to remove regulatory bureaucracy. Member States must address country-specific legal and taxation inconsistencies, such as the double charge for storage. Moreover, not only traditional electricity needs have to be met. The market size for heating and cooling across the Member States is significant, and e-mobility is on the rise. These sectors must not be left out of the equation.

As sectors converge, mobility, heating and cooling can be combined with renewable electricity, driving sustainable decarbonisation. However, the grid must be equipped to handle increased demand and volatile production. Legislation must support the rollout of demand-side response technologies, which will allow flexible loads to contribute to grid stability and be used as energy storage. Solutions that empower end-customers and incentivise them to use their flexible loads in the interest of grid stability by offering cheaper tariffs when renewable production is high are the way forward. This requires a widespread rollout of smart meters and location-based, time-variable grid fees. Both are already being used in the UK and Denmark to offer end-customers flexible tariffs.

Last but not least, instead of the current practice of matching renewable procurement to annual energy supply and demand, renewable energy needs to be accounted hourly – as argued for by the independent, industry-led EnergyTag initiative. Otherwise, we will see a mismatch between projections and what is actually available, leading to the underuse of available renewable energy.

The technology to harness renewable energy on a large scale exists and more end-customers are interested in making a personal contribution to the energy transition than ever before. The EU’s Clean Energy Package provides a solid basis for enabling end-customer empowerment. We now need political willingness and effective policy-making on the ground in all Member States. It’s time to leave inner-political squabbles aside and act with the big picture in mind. What seemed difficult, even impossible, twenty years ago, is now within close reach.

Reference:

https://www.energytoday.net/economics-policy/barriers-renewable-energy-technologies-development/

https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/energy-barriers-to-the-full-scale-adoption-of-renewables/106269/

https://irps.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/research/documents/IRPSDonerWorkingPaper050707.pdf

https://ucsusa.org/resources/barriers-renewable-energy-technologies

https://cris.vtt.fi/en/publications/pleasure-is-the-profit-the-adoption-of-solar-pv-systems-by-househ

Karjalainen, S., & Ahvenniemi, H. (2019). Pleasure is the profit: The adoption of solar PV systems by households in Finland. Renewable Energy, 133, 44-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.10.011

https://www.statista.com/statistics/810923/major-obstacles-to-renewable-energy-adoption-worldwide/

best wishes

Dear Sandeep Savitaprakash Sharma ,

Thank you very much for your informative response. I totally agree with all of the information stated above. It is very insightful to collect the viewpoints of fellow researchers!

Wishing you all the best,

OJ