The dissertation is the first monographic study in domestic legal scholarship devoted to the administrative and legal mechanism for the development of renewable energy, within which an administrative and legal concept of renewable energy regulation has been formulated. This concept is based on understanding renewable energy both as a sphere of public interest implementation and, at the same time, as an investment-sensitive segment of the energy market that requires the application of special procedural, institutional, and incentive-based mechanisms.
A comprehensive doctrinal analysis of the formation and development of renewable energy in Ukraine has been conducted, taking into account the transformation of the legal and regulatory framework driven by international obligations and European integration processes. It is argued that the development of renewable energy is shaped by a combination of environmental, security, and socio-economic objectives. Accordingly, administrative and legal regulation in this field performs a dual function: it creates conditions for attracting investment while at the same time facilitating the achievement of the State’s public policy objectives. It is demonstrated that renewable energy constitutes a complex legal category falling within the scope of administrative and legal regulation and encompassing interrelated groups of legal relations.
The author’s approach to defining the content of the public interest in the field of renewable energy is proposed as a complex system of interrelated elements, including the requirements of energy security, environmental sustainability, economic efficiency, the investment attractiveness of the sector, as well as the participation of territorial communities in the processes of shaping and implementing energy policy.
It has been substantiated that ensuring the effectiveness of the administrative and legal mechanism for the development of renewable energy requires the application of a “regulatory compromise” model. This model envisages achieving a balance between investment attractiveness and the predictability of the regulatory environment, on the one hand, and proper institutional and procedural safeguarding of the public interest, on the other, including compliance with environmental standards, ensuring the security and resilience of the energy system, accountability, transparency, public participation, and the fair distribution of the benefits obtained. It has been emphasised that the proper functioning and sustainable development of renewable energy are ensured through the application of a system of administrative and legal instruments, including regulatory and legal regulation, administrative and legal measures of a permitting and licensing nature, measures of State control and supervision, as well as incentives implemented through State support programmes.
Based on the analysis of the administrative and legal regulation of renewable energy, a number of systemic problems have been identified, in particular: the fragmented nature of regulatory and legal regulation, insufficient coordination of procedures, inconsistency of administrative practice, gaps in ensuring transparency in the adoption of certain decisions, as well as conflicts between energy-related and environmental requirements. The results obtained made it possible to identify the key directions for improving the administrative and legal mechanism in order to ensure the effective development of renewable energy and to enhance the transparency of administrative and legal regulation in this field.
It has been established that resolving problematic issues in the field of administrative and legal regulation of renewable energy requires taking into account the provisions of international, and above all European, legislation and the practice of their application. It has been clarified that administrative liability in the field of renewable energy requires doctrinal clarification and normative specification, since without an effective liability mechanism, regulation loses its preventive and disciplinary potential.
It has been substantiated that the main directions for improving the administrative and legal mechanism for the development of renewable energy in Ukraine, which are advisable both during martial law and in the post-war period, include: the drafting and improvement of regulatory legal acts concerning the decentralisation of autonomous generation and the improvement of organisational and legal activities aimed at implementing these acts; the establishment of a new public administration entity in the energy sector, namely the State Service for Alternative and Renewable Energy; the resolution of issues related to the application of administrative and legal methods of managing renewable energy development; and the active introduction of digitalisation into the field of renewable energy.
