To increasing the share of renewable energy for electricity generation is a major target in the EU. To meeting this target in recent years, a wide range of strategies has been implemented in different countries. This paper evaluates the success of different regulatory strategies assessing effectiveness of deployment and costs of support. The most important conclusions of this analysis are: (i) a well-designed (dynamic) feed-in tariff system ensures the fastest deployment of power plants using Renewable Energy Sources at the lowest cost to society; (ii) promotion strategies with low policy risks have lower profit requirements for investors and, hence, cause lower costs to society; (iii) regardless of which strategy is chosen, it is of high importance that there is a clear focus on the exclusive promotion of newly installed plants.