Policy-makers throughout the world face the question of how to accelerate the production of renewable energy. Of the various resources, wind and solar energy are more or less globally available. Hence a key question concerns a suitable mix of policy instruments to accelerate the deployment of wind and solar power. Their large-scale integration into existing energy systems and societies will not only contribute to the megatrend of electrification but also raises questions of socio-technical and institutional nature. In many countries, fossil fuels are protected by subsidies and several further structures within the society involving the vested interests of particular stakeholder groups, lock-ins, and path-dependencies. In some countries, nuclear energy is also protected in a similar manner. We examine such structural constraints and introduce case studies on the EU and countries with different types of policy mixes and national constraints to gain insights on a suitable mix of policy instruments to overcome them.