ABSTRACT
Since the 1980s, the UK has changed its renewable electricity support schemes from an electricity certificate-type system in 2002 to a Contracts for Difference bidding system, plus a feed-in tariff supporting small-scale renewable electricity generation a decade later. This shift towards more centralized planning of the electricity sector and technology steering seems puzzling in a country with an established reputation for liberalization. What can explain this shift? While the EU in particular has shaped the high levels of ambition for its deployment, the turns in the British support-scheme portfolio are due primarily to domestic factors. The UK has paved the way for the EU, rather than responding to it. Despite liberalization and an influx of foreign-owned utilities, we find considerable segmentation in the organizational field of electricity. Cost-efficiency concerns, and the perceived need (shared by government officials and the big utilities alike) to make the sector more attractive to investors, explain many of the changes in renewables support schemes that ultimately resulted in an auctioning system. Renewables support has seldom been subject to much political competition in the UK, but political interventions have at times had significant impact.
