Time was when solar energy was facilely dismissed as impractical, inefficient, and pricey. In recent years, however, innovations in technology, regulation, and financing have resulted in remarkable efficiency improvements and price reductions, thereby reversing the skepticism about this...

The Chinese government is vigorously promoting commercialization of renewable energy and bioproducts, given environmental issues plus food, energy, and national security concerns, according to Chinese industry experts at the August 2010 “China Bioenergy Workshop” and its related technical...

Two legal instruments for promoting renewable energy production - renewable portfolio standards (“RPSs”) and feed-in tariffs (“FITs”) - are in use across the globe. Many studies pit these policies against each other, treating them as either-or options. Some analyses suggest that FITs...

This article introduces and overviews U.S. renewable energy policy. It describes the shape, content, and contours of that policy, including its emphases and functions in both the electricity and transportation sectors of the U.S. economy. To do so, the article builds a conceptual model that can...

This paper examines developments in the renewable electricity sector in Brazil and China since 2000. The two countries share many interests with respect to solar and wind power, but institutional differences in state-business relations led to different outcomes. In China, in a context of state...

According to the official document of Romania's energy policy for the period 2020-2030, with a view to 2050, the main objective of the strategy is to increase the energy sector in conditions of sustainability by setting targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting renewable...

This policy proposal makes the case for opening Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) — both well-established investment structures — to renewable energy investment. MLPs and, more recently, REITs have a proven track record for promoting oil, gas, and...

Levelized cost is the preferred method of evaluating various energy technologies. Yet this ubiquitous technique is rarely questioned, and its history is poorly understood. This paper traces the history of levelized cost as a method and highlights its promise and pitfalls. The levelized cost of...

Across the globe, renewable energy policy is changing. The change is coming so quickly that it appears the world is now on the cusp of a new future. The renewable energy policy of the past is on its way out; a new and different policy is taking its place. That new policy has different end goals,...

Renewable energy subsidies are crucial for combatting climate change, and yet the world’s international legal infrastructure is not designed to accommodate such subsidies. The world needs a renewable energy sector to develop and implement the technologies necessary to reduce carbon and...