Though driven heavily by international issues such as energy security and climate change, renewable energy policy is largely defined at the national and regional level, though here in Europe, the EU is having an influence too.

The European Union adopted the Renewables Directive in 2001, and in March 2007 a commitment to achieve 20% of its total energy from renewables.

UK national energy policy first embraced renewables with the publication of the 2003 Energy White Paper, though NFFO and the RO had been introduced before then. The 2007 Energy White Paper re-stated the commitment to renewable energy, but did not itself contain any new policy initiatives.

Renewables policy in the UK

In the UK, renewable power first achieved a targeted support mechanism with the introduction of the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation (NFFO) in the early 1990’s, though there had been support for R&D for many years. In 2002 NFFO was replaced by the Renewables Obligation (RO).

Both these measures are directed at renewable electricity generation. Renewable heat and transport fuels had been largely neglected, until the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation was introduced in 2008 and the Renewable Energy Tariffs due to be introduced in 2010/11..

In addition to these larger scale market mechanisms there have been sporadic measures to encourage onsite renewables, mainly through various forms of grant support for users installing renewables in buildings. In addition to the tariffs, the following measures support some renewables usage:

• Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT)
• Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC)
• Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP)
• Zero Carbon buildings initiatives

Grant funding has been used additionally to support individual renewable energy technologies such as biomass, offshore wind and marine renewables.

Policies in devolved administrations

Energy is a policy area not devolved to Wales so renewables policy for England and Wales is defined by the UK national government.

Scotland has been aiming to keep its policy very closely aligned to England and Wales. It has its own Renewables Obligation (Scotland), which is fully interlinked and inter-trading with the England and Wales system.

Northern Ireland has been pursuing a strong pro-renewables approach, partly in partnership with the Republic of Ireland. The province adopted the Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation in 2005, again interlinked with the other two.

Local and regional policies

Most regional agencies have adopted strategies for renewables and established organisations to promote renewable energy in their region.

Some local authorities have been particularly pro-active in adopting renewable-friendly policies particularly in the area of onsite renewables in buildings. Woking Council pioneered the use of renewables in its own premises and the establishment of an Energy Supply Company to produce and distribute renewable energy. Merton Borough Council introduced what is now commonly called the Merton Rule requiring developers of new buildings above a certain area to adopt a prescribed proportion of onsite renewables.

Greater London is now adopting similar and other new policies and starting to show further leadership in pioneering the uptake of renewables.