Argentine : la promotion des énergies renouvelables pour la production d'électricité

Support policies for RETs in Argentina is an interesting case to analyse the effectiveness of incentive mechanisms in a context of high risk perception. Recent experience in the electricity sector shows that the application of several theoretically effectives instruments did not produce the expected results despite the large potential available. Could it be explained by a failure in the design and implementation of the main promotion tools or by an unfavourable economic and institutional context and the related barriers? This paper analyses the interactions between policy tools and barriers from an historic and evolutionary perspective. After a theoretical introduction, first it refers to the milestones in the national economic and energy context. Then, it analyses the main policy instruments, their implementation and the various barriers that may determine the success or failure of the promotion policy. To achieve this, several step were performed: a deep literature review, an analysis of promotion laws and interviews with key stakeholders (investors, policy makers, energy analysts). In the Argentinean case, the RET's deployment in the last 20 years was clearly affected by the institutional and economic context –with a big crisis in 2002 and the consequent public control of electricity tariffs. Moreover, we found several problems in the design and implementation of the two first policy instruments (feed-in premium system of 1998 and 2006). The GENREN program was a well-designed economic instrument but it was not accompanied by additional measures to facilitate the funding of projects, i.e. the promotion policies did not respond to the financial failure. More generally, the results show that the malfunctioning of energy markets and also macroeconomic and institutional barriers may prove decisive for the success or failure of promotion policies. The isolated application of economic incentives (like feed-in tariffs, feed-in premium, etc.) may not be enough to promote investment in RETs, especially in developing and emerging countries with a high risk environment. Complementary measures are required: short, medium and long run energy planning, facilitate funding access, facilitate the grid integration of green electricity and education and information diffusion to increase awareness and citizens' participation in RETs projects.