To meet decarbonisation goals, global renewable power capacity will need to more than triple by 2030, according to leading energy agencies. Centralised renewable generation will not deliver this level of change on its own, nor should it. Distributed energy resources (DERs) such as heat pumps, electric vehicles, small-scale solar generation and battery storage are...

The European energy crisis was not caused by the electricity market. But it sure made people pay closer-than-usual attention to its design. That is not a bad thing. The electricity market becomes ever more important as large swaths of the economy further electrify. The electricity market therefore needs to be fit-for-purpose. In this briefing, RAP lays out how th...

In the past, power market reform happened to increase efficiency, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or to improve reliability and security of supply. Today in Europe, the desire to further change the market stems from the ongoing energy crisis. As the European Union introduces a new round of electricity market reforms, RAP explores where new market regulation w...

Options for the better integration of demand-side resources was written by Zsuzsanna Pató for the Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission. It covers options to further mobilise energy efficiency and demand-side flexibility in European power markets. These options are clustered into:  Short-term actions: No need for legislative change, but wil...

Accomplishing climate neutrality by 2050 requires a zero-emissions power sector by the mid-2030s. Securing a decarbonized power system early will unlock pathways for the whole economy. One of the biggest challenges to accomplishing this ambitious goal is time—we have a need for speed if we want to meet decarbonization goals by 2035.   This is why RAP has c...

European policymakers are weighing possible responses to the extraordinary surge in energy prices and the consequences for citizens and industry. The European Commission expects to issue additional guidance in May, following analysis due in April from the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. Targeted relief to vulnerable consumers should be undertaken...

Given the urgency of the transition to clean energy, Europe has set its sights high. The European Union aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions in the next ten years and attain net zero by 2050. Electrification from renewable energy resources will play an important role in these decarbonisation efforts. The European Commission envisions offshore...

Carbon leakage occurs in any carbon pricing regime that is not global, which means all of them so far. That is inherently unfair to sectors that are subject to a carbon price but compete with those that are not. The European Green Deal aims to rectify the problem in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) by moving beyond the current second (or third) best option, ...

​The consortium behind the Horizon 2020 project ENEFIRST hosted a webinar on Putting energy Efficiency First – Learning from international experience. RAP's Zsuzsanna Pató introduced Efficiency First, its implications and provided best practices and lessons learned. Efficiency First, a decision-making principle embedded in the Clean Energy for All Europeans ...