Innovative policies to promote renewable energy

The subject of this paper is innovative policies to promote renewable energy. The renewable energy industry has made great progress in the last decade. Prices have dropped four-fold or more, and reliability has increased dramatically. By most measures, then, the renewable energy industry should be poised to become a mainstream success. But upon closer examination, it appears instead that society may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Unless something changes, and soon, dozens of promising renewable technologies may stumble and fall. An exploding population, a build-up of CO2 threatening to cause global warming, extensive oil spills and oil fires, and acid rain make it imperative to preserve this option. The author looks at what drives this situation, where on the one hand renewable energy technologies are more cost-effective than ever, and on the other society is not ready to purchase them in sufficient quantities to overcome these problems