State aid assessment for renewable energy support schemes: deconstructing the Guidelines on State aid for Climate, Environmental Protection and Energy, in view of the recent major crises.

Abstract

The attainment of the clean energy transition in the EU requires substantial additional investment in renewable energy projects. In this regard, Member States have been and still are using support schemes, regulatory instruments that financially support such investments in different ways. However, since support schemes constitute an intervention in the market, their legality and compatibility with the internal market is not self-evident but needs to be assessed under State aid law. This assessment is typically conducted on the basis of soft law conditions that the Commission adopts with its Guidelines. The latest relevant body of Guidelines is the CEEAG of 2022, and this paper critically presents and analyses the conditions of the CEEAG that involve the promotion of renewable energy sources. It interprets the conditions, shows how priorly applicable conditions have evolved and have found a new expression in the CEEAG, and highlights grey areas and weak points of the CEEAG. In addition, this paper weighs the CEEAG against the most recent uncertainties, particularly the ones posed by the effects of the energy price and security crises that have challenged the prevalent modus operandi for the promotion of renewable energy sources.