Renewable energy and regulatory risk

principles of legal certainty, non-retroactivityand protection of legitimate expectations in the field of electric power production from environmental sources

Abstract

Riesgo regulatorioThe production of electricity from renewable resources is subject to extraordinarily changing regulatory framework, as a high degree of regulatory complexity. On the, one hand, the article analyses successive regulatory frameworks on this topic. On the other, the response from case-law to the following issuses: a) the conditions necessary to streanline the dynamism of the legal system with the principle of legal certainty; b) the legality of implementing a new economic regime to existing energy producers, which is solved by the proper application of the principle of non-retroactivity; c) how it affects the changing regulatory framework to the economic expectations of renewable energy producers whose decisions were supported by a particular regulatory framework, which leads us to the analysis of the principle of legitimate expectations.