Renewable Energy Policy: A Comparative Case Study of Latvia and Sweden

Abstract: In autumn 2017, a news scandal surfaced in the Latvian media about a potential subsidy scam by the renewable energy generating companies. The scandal bought the attention of the Latvian government towards the renewable energy policy in Latvia with thoughts to research the existing support system and potentially change it to a new one. This situation provided the ground for reviewing the Latvian renewable energy policy in a comparison study with another European Union (EU) member country with an example of a good renewable energy policy implementation. Sweden was selected as the subject for the studies. This study was performed through a qualitative empirical data review, using documents and journal articles as the main information sources. The study has shown that both Sweden and Latvia take a leading position within the EU when it comes to the renewable energy share in the final energy mix regardless of the considerable gap in the quality of governance index that has an impact on the sustainable development of a country. A comparison of Latvian and Swedish policy also shows a difference in the policy consistency and stability. Lack of coherent policy terminology throughout the different authoritative information sources, more frequent policy revisions than in Sweden and general lack of data availability summarizes the situation in Latvia. The research has identified that the main difference between Latvian and Swedish renewable energy policy is the administrative processes surrounding it. In general, it can be said that Sweden has a more transparent system with less bureaucracy whereas in Latvia the process is more complex and therefore is more susceptible to corruption.