Is It Going to Happen? Regulatory Change and Renewable Electricity.

In the last decade or so the policies supporting renewable electricity have been changed several times in most European countries. Based on the experience of England and Wales, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark this paper discusses some of the factors influencing the likelihood of such regulatory change. These are found to belong to a wide set of causes, ranging from economic efficiency and financial stability to equity of treatment through what has been called the Brussels effect. By considering how national polices deal with the issues discussed in this paper, one hypothetical investor can assess the risk of a regulatory change and therefore the likelihood of its investment being undermined by a policy change.

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