A comprehensive solar technology systems analysis model, the Solar Advisor Model (SAM), has been developed to support the federal R&D community and the solar industry by staff at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratory. This model is able to model the...

Eventually, distributed PV will become a more significant part of the generation mix. When this happens, it is expected that utilities will have to take on a more active role in the placement, operation and control of these systems. There are operational complexities and concerns of revenue...

The term green pricing refers to programs offered by utilities in traditionally regulated electricity markets, which allow customers to support the development of renewable energy sources by paying a small premium on their electric bills. Since the introduction of the concept in the United...

Global climate change and other environmental challenges require the development of new energy technologies with lower emissions. In the near-term, R&D investments, either by government or the private sector, can bring down the costs of these lower emission technologies. However, the results of...

The mix of public and private research funding investments in alternative energy presents a challenge for isolating the effect of government R&D funding. Factors such as energy prices and environmental policy influence both private and public R&D decisions. Moreover, because government R&D is...