The photovoltaic growth in the European Union requires stronger RES support

Since the adoption of the EU Directive, 2001/77/EC, the production of electricity from renewable energy sources has progressed. Apart from the indicative target proposed by the Directive, actually no other tools of policy monitoring exist. To fill this gap, we propose a dynamic method able to capture this multidimensional phenomenon, providing an assessment tool to measure the technical efficiency performances of EU countries in the photovoltaic sector (1996–2010). Results show how technical efficiencies of countries are, from one hand, due to problems belonging to the economic and political contexts in which they operate, on the other hand driven by specific political support schemes adopted. By taking into consideration the EU interest for a common system focused on a harmonized support schemes framework, our findings suggest the necessity of a further strengthening on the monitoring tools to be used, in order to suitably assess the different faces of the political arrangements that need to be considered to this scope.