Main Price and Non-Price Factors of the Renewable Energy Sources Development in Union Countries of the European

Introduction. The article examines the main price and non-price factors of renewable energy development in the EU countries at the present stage. The relevance of studying RES is determined, on the one hand, by the importance of environmental protection within the global climate agenda, on the other hand, by the insufficient coverage of this topic in science. The aim of the study is to identify the main price and nonprice factors that ensure the development of RES in the EU countries; the hypothesis is that the volatility of hydrocarbon prices and EU imports of traditional energy sources from Russia is the main factor of RES development in the EU countries. Materials and Methods. To study this issue, in this paper, possible influence factors have been identified according to the PESTEL methodology. Factors were collected through expert assessment of current trends from open sources. The selected factors were used to construct a semi-logarithmic linear regression estimating the dependence of the share of RES used by the EU country on the selected factors within 2019–2023. Results. According to the constructed model, the level of corruption, the green growth index, the dummy variable illustrating the existence of a national legal framework in the field of green energy, and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per capita are significant at the 1 % level of significance; the number of green bonds issued by the country – at the 5 % level; the price of carbon, government spending on R&D, are significant at 10 % significance level; other variables are not significant. Discussion and Conclusion. The development of national legislation in the field of RES, financing of scientific projects, mainstreaming of the green agenda in civil society with a low level of corruption will provide a solid ground for the development of RES technologies in the EU countries. The results of this study may be useful in the preparation of a strategy for RES utilization in Russia by government agencies, as well as in the consideration of RES development issues in the EU, EU and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) integration.