Green Policy and Crypto Energy Consumption in the EU

A global shift toward green energy will require the removal of the existing regulatory barriers on technology, infrastructure, finance and tax policy.

Economic: Solar energy is an increasingly attractive alternative from an economic standpoint due to the declining cost of solar energy, demand for solar PV panel installations in the EU's smart cities, an increase in CO2 costs attributable to carbon taxes and environmental lawsuit fines, net metering subsidies, as well as funding - including from the European Investment Bank - in the renewable energy sector, as reported by the United Nations Environment Program.

Already, a former coal plant in Germany - where solar energy tops the list of sources for public electricity supply - is reinventing itself as a Cultural Center for experimental/electrical art that is fueled by green energy.

"Generating cheap green energy is no longer a challenge. The price of PV installations has tumbled over the last 10-20 years, so we're now seeing huge investments in this particular energy source. The challenge is to link energy production from myriads of small installations across the landscape with a country's total energy demand and energy production from other sources, some of which is also linked across national borders," explained Marta Victoria, a professor who investigated and mapped the capacities of solar PV generation in the European countries that vary considerably from one state to another.

EU regulatory and tax policiesThe EU has the authority to develop a unified energy policy under the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy is responsible for implementing the EU's Renewable Energy Directive to transition to a low-carbon economy with the aim of becoming the global leader in renewable energy.

The Renewable Energy Directive foresees that EU member states reaching a certain percentage of renewable energy by 2020.

The EU lacks a coherent renewable energy or digital tax policy.

State aid issues: Since the EU lacks a uniform tax regulator, energy tax and renewable energy subsidies are monitored by the EU Anti-Trust Commission, which is in charge of policing state aid that skews competition within the EU.The guidelines on state aid for 2014 through 2020 allow aid to renewable electricity generation granted as a premium in addition to the market price in an open, competitive bidding process on a nondiscriminatory basis.

EU state aid law does not allow Germany's tax rebates on solar power modules and other renewable energy installations of up to 2 megawatts, while Germany's parliamentary finance committee has voted to align national taxation with EU laws.