Growth in RES-E production in Slovakia has plateaued since 2014 when it reached 22.9%, falling to 21.5% in 2018 (Eurostat, 2020). The overall renewable energy share peaked at 12.8% in 2015 and fell back to 11.9% in 2018, well below Slovakia’s 2020 target of 14%. Hoping to address this gap, the Slovakian government introduced legislative changes in 2018-2019 to support larger sized RES-E capacities by making them eligible for auctioned feed-in premium. However, the first auction planned for spring 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and change of the government. The new cabinet took over the governance of the country on March 21 and the auction was cancelled 10 days later instead of postponing it, which suggests that it might be redesigned before relaunching. Nevertheless, the planned and cancelled scheme has some interesting features worth examining and comparing, even if the new government introduces changes.

The case study is built up as follows. Chapter 2 provides a brief overview of the composition of Slovakian electricity generation and the development of renewable electricity production. Chapter 3 describes the evolution of the country’s renewable electricity support system. The main characteristics of the renewable energy auction design are described in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 provides conclusions.

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