Renewable electricity development has taken different paths across countries, underpinned by different policy frameworks.
The keystone of sound policies on renewable electricity development is a detailed scientific differentiation and qualification of renewable electricity sources and technologies, for measuring the huge diversity in the field.
We also investigate the impacts of renewable portfolio standards on in-state renewable electricity development using panel data and our new measure of RPS stringency, and compare the results with those when alternative measures are used.
China, India, and South Africa have recognized the importance of renewable electricity for their future development.
The early development of renewable electricity generation in both case study regions must mainly be attributed to local actors and their initiative.
We show here that the development of CO2 and gas prices, as well as the conventional capacity mix is crucial for the development of renewable electricity market values.
The development of renewable electricity in China can be divided into four stages since 1973 (Hao 2013), i.e., starting stage (1973 1992), the preliminary stage of industrialization (1993 2004), fast developing stage (2005 2009) and industrial-scale stage (2010–).
Secondly, to accelerate the development of renewable electricity, some initiatives and laws were made by the government, e.g. China's Agenda 21 (enacted in 1992), Developing Program of New Energy and Renewable electricity during 1996 2010 (in 1995) as well as the Laws of Saving on Energy Resources in China (promulgated in 1998) (NBS 2015).
According to our governance focus, we additionally look at actors and institutions which (can) influence the development of renewable electricity generation indirectly, i.e., actors from politics, administration, and civil society, as well as institutions, in the form of laws and other formal as well as informal regulations and modes of interaction.
In short, both hydrogen- and battery-powered cars, if they're to solve the pollution problem (and not just the oil-dependency problem), depend on the development of clean, renewable electricity production.
The experiences shared by the interviewees suggest that a subsidy focus on renewable electricity has hampered not only the development and production of other forms of renewable energy by means of biogas but also the production of alternative or additional products and technologies.
