Removing Subsidies - Leveling the Playing Field for Renewable Energy Technologies
Article from: OGEL 2 (2004), in Renewable Energy
Summary
Direct and indirect financial support ('subsidies') to promote energy supply and access has historically tended to skew the playing field against renewable sources of energy. Globally, subsidies for oil, coal gas and nuclear power have totalled in the tens of billions of dollars annually. Subsidies take a variety of forms, including direct support to consumers, direct payments to investors in large and capital intensive projects, tax exemptions, price caps or ceilings and more subtle and indirect forms such as transmission grid support, regulatory hurdles for small and distributed power ...