Noerr hosts international Energy Markets Conference

Noerr hosted its annual international Energy Markets Conference on 4 July in Frankfurt/Main. As in recent years, the conference gathered legal experts from a number of countries throughout the world, including the UK, France, Romania, Poland, Finland, Brazil and Turkey. The speakers brought the participants from the energy industry, investors, and banks up-to-date on the economic and legal environment as well as investment opportunities for energy projects in their respective countries.

The presentations demonstrated the wide variety of legal requirements and incentives for energy projects in the various countries, ranging from the German subsidization scheme under the revised Renewable Energies Act (EEG), the French Energy Transition and the “Alstom Decree” governing foreign energy investments, the introduction of capacity markets in the UK, the Finnish wind, gas and nuclear energy markets and the Brazilian wind power boom through to benefits for energy projects when setting up Dutch holding and financing companies.

While the development of renewable energy capacities often faces similar issues in the various countries, the solutions vary to a large extent and participants were inspired to explore the pros and cons of the different solutions and the practical consequences. As an overall trend, tender procedures for renewables projects currently seem to be the regulatory mechanism of choice in many countries to secure a strong build-up of renewable sources at acceptable prices.