Politics and Policy Features
| 13 May 2013
China has long been an important player in the global photovoltaics market, but trade policies and quality of materials have been contentious issues. Many blamed market stumbling to the low-cost Chinese goods flooding markets throughout the world. Fast forward one year and more countries have expressed a need to levy import taxes on Chinese solar goods.
| 24 December 2012
Much like in the United States, the Canadian approach to encouraging solar energy development has been fragmented between the provinces. Between 2007 and 2011, the Federal government committed $1.4 Billion to encourage renewable energy projects through the ecoAction program, but no new money has been committed for the renewables portion of the project.
| 05 November 2012
With massive urban transformation happening in India, 41% of the population is expected to live in urban areas by 2030 as compared to current figure of 31%, the challenge will be to sustain the growth by ensuring the long-term sustainability of cities. Currently, cities are facing electricity shortages in their respective states due to burgeoning demand day by day.
| 29 October 2012
Becoming one of the top ten solar capacity states doesn’t happen overnight. Consistency in policy is key to encouraging solar development and private financial investment, but the top states have also shown an ability to adapt their policies; adjust incentives, be open to creative new policies, and be ready to change policies that aren’t working, all while inspiring trust in their citizens that the policy makers will continue to support solar. The policies of the top three states—California, New Jersey, and Colorado—are not surprising. They each have aggressive renewable portfolio standards (RPSs), net metering, and property tax exemptions for any increase in home values with solar panels.
| 10 October 2012
In 2012 the solar industry has reached a new level of maturity, although it is still reliant on government support, mostly in the form of feed-in tariffs (FiTs). The European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) released a Photovoltaic Report that looked at the industry in 2011, summarising that the FiT and similar incentives were a dominant factor in 2011 in determining consumer demand for PV installations.
| 11 September 2012
The lazy days of summer haven’t been so lazy for the US federal government, which has recently given the green light to several solar projects on federal lands and developed a roadmap for future large-scale solar development in the West.
| 10 September 2012
Uttar Pradesh became the 6th state in India to draft a solar policy and it’s none too soon, as the state’s economic growth is being hampered by inadequate power supply. As of June of this year, the state had a monthly peak power deficit of 9.7% and an energy deficit of 15.3%.
| 13 August 2012
It is hard to say whether the next great leap forward in solar energy efficiency or economics will come from the basic science research performed largely at universities and national labs, from incremental engineering improvement, or from investing in start-up companies to get their products from the laboratory to store shelves.
More Articles...
- Snapshot of the US Solar Industry
- Russian PV Industry: Facing the future with optimism
- Europe’s Role in the Worldwide PV Market
- Solar Policy in the US
- Government Policies and the Economics of Solar
- Czech Solar: A lesson in what not to do
- German PV market: Moving toward a sustainable growth pattern
- UK Feed inTariff: What it means for solar
- China’s Solar Policy: Helping or hindering?
- The US Clean Energy Economy: Buy Indian
