Green power: A key factor for EPEX SPOT
Renewable energy: Increasingly important role in Europe
Under the European Union’s 20/20/20 policy ‒ aimed at reducing emissions by 20% whilst simultaneously increasing renewable generation percentage share of to 20% by 2020 ‒ renewable electricity capacity has increased significantly in the past 10 years. This growth, fuelled by political, economic and environmental imperatives, will see renewables continue to play an increasing role in the European energy mix over the next decade. Germany, EPEX SPOT’s largest market, currently has about 22% of its energy mix supplied by renewable energy. This is expected to increase to 35% by 2020 and to 80% by 2050. The most notable growth has been in solar and wind power which pose significant challenges for modern energy markets due to their specific characteristics, notably intermittency and daily ramping increase and decrease.
Installed Renewable Capacity 2011, in GW (Sources: Eurelectric, BMU, RTE)
| EU-27 | France | Germany | |
| Hydro | 120.0 | 25.4 | 4.4 |
| Biomass | 26.0 | 1.3 | 7.2 |
| Wind | 94.0 | 6.7 | 29.1 |
| Solar | 52.1 | 2.2 | 25.0 |
| Geothermal | 0.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| TOTAL | 293.0 | 35.5 | 65.7 |
Over the past two years, EPEX SPOT’s markets have demonstrated their suitability for the integration of additional renewable volumes whilst minimizing price impacts such as increased volatility and negative prices.