Institutions for Advanced Energy Transitions

Leon Wansleben

With the rapid expansion of renewable energy sources (RES), there is great hope that the generation of electricity with wind and solar can form the basis for comprehensive decarbonization. However, it is precisely in those countries with high and rapidly growing RES shares that we are seeing increasing system costs, dysfunctions, and uncertainties. Energy sector institutions in these countries - liberalized markets and renewables support policies – are often unable to prevent growing mismatches between the requirements of RES and the designs of existing systems. This leads to grid bottlenecks, investment uncertainties, and unresolved distributional conflicts. In this comparative project, we examine how far countries can mobilize extant governance institutions or build new ones to solve these problems with the help of coordinated planning, market redesign, and the establishment of new financing and cost-distribution mechanisms. The project particularly compares the United Kingdom, Germany, and Denmark due to the countries’ high RE shares and their different institutional setups.