At the first stage, the financial effectiveness of the investment is assessed, then the effectiveness providing free-market conditions, i.e. without the support system. This analysis is only a starting point for proposals for the "required" minimum support for each technology that ensures the financial viability. This analysis is particularly important because the draft of Polish legal act on renewable energy sources announces differentiation of renewable energy investments support system in respect to particular RES technology. Then, an analysis of the economic viability of each technology was provided to verify the present financial government support system.
The economic analysis is based on the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) method. The methodology consists in: (1) the transformation of market prices used in financial analysis into accounting prices (that amend prices distorted by market imperfections) and (2) recognition of externalities leading to social benefits and costs. Basically, the main corrections are environmental, external effects of this investments. In the paper, environmental benefits are recognized as the damage avoided due to replacement of the coal electricity generation with the RES based electricity. The results of detailed analysis of health and environmental impacts of electricity generation systems called Impact Pathway Assessment (IPA) approach, are obtained within the ExternE (External Costs of Energy) Project of the European Commission [European Commission, 1999] and CASES (Costs Assessment of Sustainable Energy Systems) Project [European Commission, 2008] framework.
Generally, the analyzed RES technologies contributes positively to projects’ value only because of implemented government support mechanisms. However, different technologies require different level of support.