Publications: IGES research collaboration with the World Resources Institute: New Report Finds Strong, Long-term Policies Needed for Successful Renewable Energy Growth Report compares solar and wind industry trends and policies in U.S., China, Germany, India and Japan

Press Release: IGES research collaboration with the World Resources Institute: New Report Finds Strong, Long-term Policies Needed for Successful Renewable Energy Growth  Report compares solar and wind industry trends and policies in U.S., China, Germany, India and Japan

22 November 2012

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) collaborated with the U.S. World Resources Institute (WRI) on its newly released paper, which compares progress and underlying conditions for solar photovoltaic (PV) and on-shore wind development in five countries - the United States, China, Germany, India and Japan. The paper compares the policies and incentives, documents the state of play in each market, and determines what strategies seem to have been most successful to date. The paper, Delivering on the Clean Energy Economy, finds that installed solar PV capacity in those countries expanded from 3.75 GW to 37.3 GW between in 2005 and 2010. It also finds that on shore wind capacity has increased from 18.4 GW to 157 GW in the same time frame. “This analysis shows very clearly that comprehensive, predictable and targeted policies have been most successful in the development of domestic renewable energy industries,” said Jennifer Morgan, director of WRI’s Climate and Energy Program. “This report provides policymakers with an in-depth look at the conditions needed to drive growth in renewable energy and expedite the shift to a low-carbon economy.” Further, while 2011 new renewable energy investments (excluding large hydropower) have risen to a record USD257 billion, which is a six-fold increase from 2004, the paper finds that underlying policy conditions are essential to ensure the future expansion of this emerging industry. For example, in Japan, a package of renewable energy policies that includes a supporting framework for R&D has helped the domestic industry to maintain high export capacity for solar PV modules, despite cheaper options from other countries. At the same time, Japan has not had stable deployment policies that target system price reduction and has relied heavily on subsidizing average system costs that are deployed domestically. “The report provides us with valuable suggestions for post-Fukushima Japan not only to realize fast, efficient and effective large-scale deployment of renewable energy, but also to strengthen the competitiveness of Japanese domestic renewable energy industry”, said Professor Jusen Asuka, director of Climate Change Group at IGES. The paper finds that the level of investment and capacity varies greatly from country to country. The ability to develop competitive and healthy renewable energy industries has varied widely depending on the policies in place. In particular, the research finds that successful countries: Take a comprehensive approach, with their policies integrated at the national level; Sustain policy in a predictable manner, with policies having an established lifetime of at least 3 to 4 years to enhance industry certainty; and Target their policies to address specific technologies and the needs of the entire value chain. This analysis was carried out under the Open Climate Network (OCN), led by the World Resources Institute, and in partnership with Renmin University of China (China), Oko Institute (Germany), The Energy and Resources Institute (India) and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (Japan). >> Read a blog about the paper here (WRI website) >> Find the working paper, along with a new data explorer tool, here (WRI website)

Contact for this release: Michael Oko Director, Media and Strategic Communications World Resources Institute Tel.  +1 (202) 729-7684; moko@wri.org http://www.wri.org/ Emi Doi (Ms.), PR Officer  Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) iges@iges.or.jp For more information:  http://www.iges.or.jp/en/news/press/12_11_22.html