RE is booming: not too long ago, hydro power was the only serious source of electricity generated from renewable sources. Technological advancements and initial subsidy regimes has facilitated new technologies, such as wind and solar power to penetrate the market.
RE is competitive: Today’s power generated from renewable sources at superior locations is cheaper than energy generated from conventional, non-renewable sources. This has three effects: i) feed-in-tariff regimes are/will soon be redundant, ii) margins for all market participants are decreasing and iii) private power purchase agreements (PPA) become a popular form for hedging power price fluctuations.
RE is fragmented: While energy supply used to be large scale and frequently financed with public money, this has changed with the emergence of new technologies. Today’s renewable energy transactions are much more fragmented, can be of any size and increasingly involve private money.