Renewable Energy - Market and Policy Trends in IEA Countries reviews the experience of IEA countries after the oil crisis in the 1970s initiated a surge of investments in renewables research and development. While use of renewables has grown rapidly, they still account for only a small portion of the IEA energy mix. Hydropower, bioenergy and geothermal energy are mature technologies that contribute about 5 - 6% to primary energy supply. Solar, wind, and other new renewables have experienced rapid technology development, but as yet they represent only a small share.This work examines policies and measures that have been introduced in IEA countries to increase the cost effective deployment of renewables, reviews the objectives behind these policies, and evaluates the results. The aim is to identify best practices in order to assist governments in making future policy decisions.

Are you developing strategies for a future sustainable energy supply? Are you designing policies to deploy renewable energy technologies in your country? Are you looking for new tools and measures to make your policies more effective? Are you planning to make decisions on renewable energy investments in certain countries and are you checking their policy robustness? Let the IEA guide you into successful, efficient and effective policies and decisions for accelerating deployment of renewable energy. Learn about the six policy actions that are essential ingredients for your policy portfolio: - Alliance Building - Communicating - Target Setting - Integration in economic policies - Optimizing existing instruments and - Neutralizing disadvantages on the playing field This book shows why and how successful renewable energy strategies work. Many recent and actual examples of best cases and experiences in policies--based on literature and interviews--show how policies can best mobilize national and international renewable energy business and the financial institutions, while creating broad support. The book is an initiative of the IEA-RETD, an international agreement between nine countries to investigate and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy deployment. - Presents you with a variety of policy options that have been proven to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy technologies - Based on experiences around the world at the local, regional and national levels - Includes the IEA's ACTION star, a decision-making tool for developing a consolidated renewables policy framework - Find inspiration in this guide's depiction of the significant renewable energy developments to date and the many examples of successful policies featured

Solar energy is a substantial global industry, one that has generated trade disputes among superpowers, threatened the solvency of large energy companies, and prompted serious reconsideration of electric utility regulation rooted in the 1930s. One of the biggest payoffs from solar’s success is not the clean inexpensive electricity it can produce, but the lessons it provides for innovation in other technologies needed to address climate change. Despite the large literature on solar, including analyses of increasingly detailed datasets, the question as to how solar became inexpensive and why it took so long still remains unanswered. Drawing on developments in the US, Japan, Germany, Australia, and China, this book provides a truly comprehensive and international explanation for how solar has become inexpensive. Understanding the reasons for solar’s success enables us to take full advantage of solar’s potential. It can also teach us how to support other low-carbon technologies with analogous properties, including small modular nuclear reactors and direct air capture. However, the urgency of addressing climate change means that a key challenge in applying the solar model is in finding ways to speed up innovation. Offering suggestions and policy recommendations for accelerated innovation is another key contribution of this book. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy technology and innovation, climate change and energy analysis and policy, as well as practitioners and policymakers working in the existing and emerging energy industries.