• Energy Research

The paper focused on legal issues of using secondary sources in energy sector and implementation methods and challenges. The main idea of the proposed research is to substantiate the proposals and recommendations aimed at solving scientific and methodological problems of forming an effective economic and legal mechanism of secondary resource use based on a comprehensive approach to legal support for it. The paper underlined that secondary sources as an economic phenomenon occurs in conditions of growing demand for limited natural resources, including energy, increasing consumption, increasing the burden on the environment due to the accumulation of waste that cannot be recycled in natural conditions. The research stated that use of secondary resources is the basis of a circular economy, a new model of management based on the idea of green growth. Formulated prerequisites for involvement in economic circulation are the technological feasibility and economic feasibility of energy generation, which determined by the profitability of each type of production using secondary sources. The authors stressed that there is the urgent need to outline appropriate tools for legal regulation of outsourcing relations at the microeconomic level, the definition and essential characteristics of the most appropriate legal means in the mechanism of economic and legal regulation of outsourcing relations in the energy sector; economic and legal means that provide the optimization effect of outsourcing. Summarizing the research, the five steps methodology for assessing the implementation methods and challenges are formulated.

The growth of renewable energy facilities worldwide creates new challenges for sustainable regional development. Unregulated investment flows in the green energy sector cause disparities in the deployment of various renewable energy technologies, worsen the ability to balance national energy systems, etc. This article is the first comprehensive study that offers a methodology for multifactor modeling of investment flows in regional green energy deployment considering the priorities of national, regional, and local authorities within the sustainable development concept. The proposed methodological approaches help (1) determine the types of renewable energy technologies for priority development in the region, (2) select specific green energy projects to receive budgetary support on territories, and (3) form the optimal mechanism for budget financing distribution on regional development of renewable energy technologies. The modeling factors include natural conditions and resource base of a territory; its economically feasible renewable energy potential; the territory’s energy needs; installed capacity and electricity generation of new green energy facilities; power plants’ life cycle duration, the investment amount, etc. The model approbation on the example of household solar and wind power plants in the Sumy region, Ukraine, has shown the need to significantly increase financial support for renewable energy projects, primarily due to the region’s energy deficit. Calculations revealed that the interest-free loan share for both technologies should be 2.843 and 2.844 times higher than the basic share of lending (20%). For the 30-kW solar power plant project, the indicator should be 64.67% instead of the basic one of 56.86% for home solar energy facilities. Thus, the methodological approaches presented in the article are new tools that allow territorial authorities to purposefully shape and manage investment flows in the renewable energy sector to ensure sustainable energy development of regions worldwide.