Renewables and domestic energy, lessons from Europe, Part 4
The most obvious incentive is price. The dominant heating fuel in most European countries nowadays is natural gas, so let's see how our natural gas prices compare with other countries:
Source: European Commission, DG TREN Staff Working Document, Report on Progress in Creating the Internal Gas and Electricity Market (11/3/1009, SEC(2009) 287)
So the only countries in Europe with cheaper domestic gas than us in early 2008 were five ex-communist New Member States and Croatia (and notice how much good that did those countries when the Russians turned off the taps this past winter). Not only do all the other EU-15 countries have significantly higher household gas prices than us, but half of the New Member States do too.
The only European country that taxes household gas less than us is Latvia (Luxemburg and Portugal take similar amounts of tax, but on a higher base price).
This is on the basis of exchange rates at the time. Exchange rates change (and have changed significantly since then), and do not accurately reflect affordability, because of different costs of living and wage rates in different countries. A comparison according to Purchasing Power Parity might provide a more accurate reflection of the cost of heating with gas in the various countries.
