Through the Effort Sharing Decision, the European Commission has dictated individual renewable energy targets for each EU member-state, but has left each member-state to determine how it will reach its goal. In the past fifteen years, ten unique types of producer support policy have been implemented to increase renewable energy investment throughout Europe. This thesis analyzes the effectiveness and impacts of different policy designs that promote investment in renewable energy production in the European Union to determine if there is a dominant or most successful policy strategy. To compare producer support designs, this study examines the various policy designs and their temporal impacts on household electricity prices, the proportion of renewable energy in national energy mixes, real GDP, employment, and energy intensity. It also assesses the impact of policy alteration on the same dependent variables. Finally, it evaluates the idea that a dominant strategy might exist for countries facing more or less ambitious targets.
