Market Uptake support

The proposal will develop solution(s) addressing one or more of the identified challenge(s), for the entire renewable energy sector or focusing on a specific energy market, such as electricity, heating, cooling or renewable fuels. The proposed solution can be developed to address a local challenge but should have wide potential for reapplication. The solution must have a long term viability and not be limited to an ad-hoc fix. The methodologies applied may be inspired by successful approaches already tested in other fields or contexts.

For all actions, the consortia have to involve and/or engage relevant stakeholders and market actors who are committed to adopting/implementing the results. The complexity of these challenges and of the related market uptake barriers may call for multi-disciplinary approaches, which should include contributions from the social sciences and humanities. Where relevant, regional specificities, socio-economic, gender-related, spatial and environmental aspects will be considered from a life-cycle perspective.

Where relevant, proposals are expected to also assess the legal, institutional and political frameworks at local, national and European level and examine how, why and under what conditions these (could) act as a barrier or an enabler.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 1 to 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Since the adoption of RES Directive in 2009, most Member States have experienced significant growth in renewable energy production and consumption, and both the EU and a large majority of Member States are on track towards the 2020 RES targets. At the same time the cost of energy from renewable energy sources has decreased significantly and the performance and market penetration of these sources has increased. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of market potential to be exploited. This potential is recognised in the ""Clean Energy for all Europeans"" package adopted at the end of 2016, which sets renewable energy targets for 2030 and introduces modifications in the energy market design, while empowering individuals or communities to participate actively to the energy system transformation. Furthermore, in June 2018 member states agreed to set an overall EU renewable energy target of 32% by 2030. Challenges exist for renewable energy to realise its full potential in all sectors and accelerate the clean energy transition, playing a crucial role in leading to an increased share of renewable energy consumed in the EU and to a more active role for the consumers.

The introduction and deployment of renewable energy at large scale requires overcoming a number of barriers. These cover issues such as consumer acceptance, legal and financial challenges related to the introduction of novel solutions into a technical and business environment with incumbent established solutions in place, necessity of making renewable energy solutions compliant with the new legislations, facilitation of legislative and regulatory aspects limiting innovative energy solutions implementation at the grid levels and also at the community or citizen level. Improving existing tools for better assessing the environmental, economic and social impact of renewable energy solutions is challenging due the breadth and scope of the different renewable technologies. The challenges are also related to creating a renewable energy sector fit for massive deployment in the market, which means ensuring that complete value chains for a broad range of renewable energy technologies are in place, not only covering raw materials (such as e.g. bioenergy feedstock) logistics but also components availability and operational reliability; and ensuring that renewables are fit to the market and capable to provide additional services to the grid. The energy markets outside the EU must not be forgotten, as they represent the most significant long term opportunity growth of the sector, but the penetration of these markets is a challenge in itself too.

It is expected that the solution proposed will facilitate the wider uptake of renewable energy generation in the energy and industrial sectors leading to an increase share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption by 2030. The solution will contribute to substantial and measurable reductions in the project development timings and efforts, whilst fully addressing the needs for environmental impact assessments and public engagement. It will also contribute to provide a basis for the development of more informed policy, market support and financial frameworks, notably at national, regional and local level, leading to more cost effective support schemes and lower financing costs for RES facilities.