It is generally agreed that the enhanced deployment of renewable energies sources (RES) is a crucial measure for the improvement of environmental protection and the enhanced security of energy supply. In this context, the European Union has set defined objectives within the Green Paper “Towards a European strategy for the security of energy supply” from 1997 to increase the share of renewable energy of total energy consumption from
6 % in 1997 to 12 % in 2010 (EU15).
The potential contribution to innovation, economic growth and creation of new jobs is an- other aspect, which has gained importance in the debate on renewable energies. More than 100.000 new jobs that have been created in the German renewable energy industry during the last 10 years raise hope that the renewable energy industry could be a job mo- tor for many countries in the EU.
Thus, it seems at first sight that renewable energies can guarantee both – protection of the environment and economic growth and job creat ion. Therefore, the deployment of re- newable energies seems to be the ideal solution to achieve the goals set in the Lisbon
Agenda - i.e. environment, economic growth and job creation.
To identify those policy measures which can contribute to the attainment of these goals by the promotion of renewable energies, a close and critical look on the assumptions con- cerning the advantages of RES is inevitable. First of all, this requires a good understand- ing of the