Collaborative market approaches to stimulate sustained renewable energy deployment

New market opportunities for renewable energy technologies are emerging in response to lower costs, greater possibilities for distributed products and services, strong customer preference for cleaner electricity, and the anticipation of deregulation of the electric power industry. In response, a series of innovative programs and market-based mechanisms are supporting accelerated, commercialization efforts. This paper reviews two different but complementary national collaborative initiatives. The PV-COMPACT, through its major program components, focuses on a number of market mechanisms and policy tools that support sustainable deployment of photovoltaic (PV) systems for utility markets. The Workshop In A Box Program, a collaborative effort managed by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, supplies the right information to key state government agencies to assist them in evaluating decisions to purchase renewable energy products. This paper also addresses how distributed applications can open new markets for renewable energy systems including the evolution of customer choice programs like green pricing. The programs discussed in this paper demonstrate that no singular mechanism drives new and sustainable markets: it is the symbiotic relationship among many innovative and enterprising efforts and investments that leads to emerging renewable energy markets