Renewable energy policies in Portugal

• Autor(a) principal: Netto, Carlos Pinto Coelho Amaral
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/6969
• topic: Renewable energy; Feed-in tariffs; Quota obligation; Bioenergy; Energias renováveis; Tarifas de aquisição; Quotas; Bioenergia

Policies chosen to promote renewables can vary significantly and determine different levels of deployment, efficiency and technological innovation. Instruments in this sector have been mostly directed towards electricity generation and are usually divided into two main types: feed-in tariffs and quota obligations. The former is more frequent in the European Union and is associated with higher levels of deployment, as well as higher policy costs. However, support schemes can be adjusted in order to minimize their shortcomings. Tariffs can be reduced progressively as deployment targets are reached and quota obligation schemes can be designed to recognize different technological development stages. Policies in Portugal have initially been based on investment grants to promote the switch from fuel oil, an attempt to reduce energy dependence and keep the industrial sector competitive after the two oil shocks of the 70s. This approach continued after the accession to the European Union and feed-in tariffs per se were only introduced in 1999. However, it would only be with the introduction of technology premiums in the pricing mechanism in 2001 that significant renewable deployment was to be seen. This thesis describes the policy evolution and includes a detailed analysis of the bioenergy sector, where the combined heat and power feed-in tariff has successfully triggered new power capacity promoted mostly by industrial companies in the wood sector, particularly pulp and paper. Incentives for heat production have been scarce but the sector has fought back its troubles by making good use of strong support policies in other Member States.