About: market design

EU renewable electricity hopes get welcome jolt

Fifty percent of the EU’s electricity will have to come from renewable energy sources by 2030 but the issue is more than just a matter of building more solar panels and wind turbines. The structure of Europe’s power grid will have to change.

Capacity markets: A necessary evil in the energy transition?

Detractors of capacity mechanisms argue they are mere state aid for dirty fossil fuels that should be eliminated as soon as possible while supporters claim they provide vital back-up in the transition to renewable electricity. The fact that both are correct is leaving Europe in a quandary.

‘Capacity markets’ must remain technologically-neutral

The European Parliament’s approach to electricity market design is a serious challenge to security of energy supply in Poland and other EU member states, warns Frank Umbach.

Storage ‘not fundamentally needed’ for future power grid, scientists say

The emergence of household batteries, along with small-scale solar photovoltaic and plug-in electric cars, is slated to transform electricity storage, according to a new state-of-the-art report by European science academies. But experts claim storage is not actually fundamentally needed.

How should power markets work and what must be left to policy?

For almost 20 years since the liberalisation in the power sector, governments around the world have been struggling to find a durable market design, even before subsidised renewables entered the stage, explains Graham Weale.