With the number and variety of policy approaches for promoting grid-connected PV ever increasing,one of the important roles for IEA PVPS is to provide policy decision makers with resources to assess the positive and negative aspects of the options as well as information about the added-values of PV which might underpin such policy decisions.
This has been documented in several IEA PVPS reports, notably:
See for a list of publications PVPS reports
& books or go to the section publications
and other project results.
Nevertheless, policy makers have largely been slow to incorporate added values in emerging renewable energy policies and programmes. There are many questionsstill to be answered, and demonstrations of ‘best practice’ approaches will be helpful.
Renewable portfolio standards
Governments are now increasingly relying on the ‘renewable portfolio standard’ (RPS) approach to increase renewable energy deployment in their countries – often, but not solely, as a mandated mechanism for pursuing greenhouse gas emission reductions.
However, in the absence of a national strategy for PV or at least some concrete targets for installed capacity of PV, the RPS is unlikely to have a positive impact on PV deployment and may even have unforeseen negative implications. This arises because
the RPS generally encourages the lowest direct cost renewable energy options – a criterion which grid-connected PV is unlikely to fulfil in the near term. This helps minimize electricity retail price rises, important politically where governments have tried hard to sell the economic benefits of electricity market reform.
However, this near-term approach does not take account of the potential longer-term competitiveness of technologies like PV,
which may only be realised by specific support in the near-term.
Rebates
At the same time, governments are also realizing that simple grid-connected PV rebate schemes, implemented without a broader PV policy framework or complementary industry support measures, may do little to decrease prices, promote innovation or develop sustained market demand – probably because these schemes alone do not send the right signals about value to the stakeholders (PV industry, electricity businesses and investors / end-users). PVPS Programme activities have documented and continue to investigate approaches that can be simple, and easy to implement and administer, while not distorting market development.
Green Power
Meanwhile we are seeing a proliferation of ‘green power’ schemes offered by electricity businesses. In principle, these rely on part of the customer base giving some environmental or other value to renewable energy – and paying a premium for the privilege. These also rely on the customer base having trust in the supply of their green electricity.
Electricity businesses also have an opportunity to maximize network benefits and promote other benefits when they support or
invest in green power projects. PV fits well with this because customers often seek ‘solar energy’ (compared with electricity from biomass or hydro plants, for example) while
in the built environment the promotion of some of PV’s added values can smooth the pathway to deployment. However green
power schemes (especially in their infancy) are often characterised by the same broad, least-cost approach as per the RPS, and it is uncommon to see PV specifically promoted.
Governments do have a vital role to play in
establishing a realistic and supportive policy
framework, and accelerating the development of PV-specific green power schemes, even though this may be regarded as a commercial matter. Issues such as the financial regulation of electricity businesses with respect to their green power activities, refinement of accreditation processes and interaction of green power with other policy measures are being discussed in various countries.
The PVPS Programme, through ongoing and new activities (such as Task 10 on Urban-Scale PV), will continue to investigate
the many questions still to be answered, identify ‘best practice’ approaches and address the broader public policy issues to support efforts to stimulate appropriate deployment of grid-connected PV systems. Watch this space!
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