Wind, solar investors threaten to leave Europe because of revenue cap

European wind and solar power industries associations warned that investments could go elsewhere after EU energy ministers voted to introduce revenue caps for wind, solar, nuclear and coal power generation.

Governments need to act to help families and businesses pay their energy bills, but the latest decisions made by European Union energy ministers could worsen the energy crisis, said WindEurope.

SolarPower Europe said it is deeply concerned about patchwork implementation.

According to WindEurope, emergency regulation puts renewable energy investments at risk.

The new EU regulation does nothing to stop national governments from introducing additional taxes and taking uncoordinated measures on different types of power generation, WindEurope said.

WindEurope: Investors will simply go elsewhere

The organization said the additional measures include taxes on electricity producers’ total revenue, rather than their profits, and that it would stop investments in renewables.

“Investors will simply go elsewhere. To the US for example, where the Inflation Reduction Act has big tax credits for renewables investments,”, WindEurope said.

It advised national governments that deviating from the EU-wide cap or applying additional taxes on electricity producers would stop investments in green energy and make it much harder for Europe to get out of the energy crisis.

SolarPower Europe: We need an emergency plan for boosting renewables

SolarPower Europe has called on member states to:

• stick to the EU-level cap set at EUR 180 per MWh,
• apply the cap on net market revenues only, and
• collect revenues on a monthly portfolio basis in order to take into account all the market revenues and expenses as well as the hedging costs.

The organization claimed that the rise in energy prices was driven by Europe’s dependency on expensive and volatile fossil fuel imports.

“We call on the European Commission to propose an emergency plan for boosting renewables now, and land that with the [European] Council before end of the year, applying the same Art 122 emergency procedure,” said SolarPower Europe.