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GOLDEN, Colorado, US, November 15, 2006
(Refocus Weekly)
A lack of government policy that supports
renewable energy is the non-technical barrier most frequently
identified to the use of renewables, according to an analysis
prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy.
The lack of government policy supporting both renewables and
energy efficiency includes a lack of policies and regulations
supporting development of solar and other technologies, and the
presence of policies and regulations which hinder development of
renewables and support conventional energy development, explain R
Margolis and J Zuboy in ‘Non-technical Barriers to Solar Energy Use:
Review of Recent Literature.’ The 30-page report reviewed 400
references which were narrowed to 19 recent documents on
non-technical barriers to the use of renewables, to identify key
barriers that must be addressed under the DOE’s Solar America
Initiative.
Lack of government policy supporting renewables was cited in 13 of
the 19 documents, and included subsidies to fossil fuels,
insufficient consumer-based incentives for renewables and
efficiency, government underwriting for accidents at nuclear
reactors, and difficult zoning and permitting processes for
renewable energy technologies.
Twelve of the documents cited a lack of information dissemination
and consumer awareness about energy and renewables, while ten
examined the high cost of renewables compared with conventional
energy. The difficulty of overcoming established energy systems and
inadequate financing options for renewable energy projects were
cited by ten documents each, while eight examined a failure to
account for all costs and benefits of energy choices, seven dealt
with inadequate workforce skills and training, five dealt with a
lack of adequate codes, standards, interconnection and net-metering
guidelines, four examined the poor perception by the general public
of renewable energy system aesthetics and four documents discussed a
lack of stakeholder and community participation in energy choices
and renewable energy projects.
The report includes annotated references with detailed information
for each of the documents, including the technologies considered,
method of barrier identification, geographic focus, summary and the
barriers identified. All of the documents were published between
2000 and 2006, and excluded reports which focus on technical
barriers and which relate to developing countries.
Eleven of the papers are from peer-reviewed journals, while seven
are reports from DOE, NREL, Energy Trust of Oregon, Florida Solar
Energy Center, Solar Electric Power Association and Solar Energy
Industries Association. All documents address solar technologies
(PV, solar thermal) with lower focus on biomass, wind, hydro,
geothermal, tidal and wave.
“Discussing solutions to the identified barriers is outside the
scope of this report,” it notes. “However, most of the documents
listed offer strategies for overcoming barriers, and it is
worthwhile to explore these documents further.”
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