Which role for market-oriented instruments for achieving energy efficiency targets in Germany?

In order to achieve national or EU-wide energy efficiency targets, a variety of policies is available. Apart from the traditional set of regulative, financial, fiscal and informative instruments, market-oriented instruments as e.g. energy efficiency obligations (EEOs) become more and more important. The new EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) even suggests EEOs as the preferred instrument for promoting energy efficiency in all Member States. Their actual impact, however, depends highly on the national framework. With a multi-criteria, semi-quantitative approach we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these instruments, taking Germany as an example. The evaluation shows that none of the instruments alone can achieve the prescribed energy efficiency targets, but that a mix of instruments is necessary. The possibility of a budget-independence of the funding in particular supports a supplementary deployment of new market-oriented instruments such as an EEO as part of the future mix of policy instruments in Germany