EU Renewable Energy Support Law: An Autonomous-Principled Sub-Field of Energy Law

Abstract

Supportive financing for renewable energy sources (RES) is crucial for the attainment of clean energy transition. Nevertheless, ‘renewable energy support law’, that is, the corpus of rules that govern the design, enactment, and implementation of support schemes for RES is not consolidated as a discipline of law yet. Accordingly, this paper aspires to crystallize renewable energy support law as an autonomous sub-field of energy law. It investigates the features that determine the disciplinary identity of an area of study: a link with societal challenges, the development of concrete objectives and methods, and the formulation of principles. The paper proceeds to establish that energy lawmeets these criteria. Next, it demonstrates that, within the broader framework set by the ‘Energy Trilemma’ theory, renewable energy support law has special societal relevance, and, mostly, distinctive principles: (1) the market-based and market-responsive character and (2) the predictability of the terms of support, which are autonomous, and unique in this discipline of law; (3) the principle of an open, transparent, competitive, non-discriminatory, and cost-effective granting of support, which is a unique feature of this field, but draws inspiration from public procurement law; and, (4) borrowed from state aid law, the avoidance of unnecessary market distortions.