Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values

Laird, Frank N.

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511509865

Cited by 49 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…Another branch of energy transitions research emphasizes institutional aspects, including institutional values and priorities (Laird 2001;Kuzemko et al 2016), institutional "layering" in which renewable energy programs are created without dismantling existing fossil fuel regimes (Laird 2016), and cross-national discursiveinstitutionalist comparisons of how actors mobilize ideas (Kern 2011). Our cases confirm that the US energy transition is being pursued through institutional layering rather than transformative reforms.…”

Section: Energy Transition Politicsmentioning

confidence: 57%

Politics in the U.S. energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind, biofuels and electric vehicles policy

2018

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Abstract:We examine the politics of US state and federal policy supporting wind and solar in the electricity sector and biofuels and electric vehicles in the transportation sector. For each technology, we provide two policy case studies: the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) and state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) for wind; state Net Energy Metering (NEM) and the federal investment tax credit (ITC) for solar; federal excise tax incentives and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for biofuels; and California's Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate and federal tax incentives for electric vehicles. Each case study traces the enactment and later revision of the policy, typically over a period of twentyfive years. We use these eight longitudinal case studies to identify common patterns in the politics of US renewable energy policy. Although electricity and transportation involve different actors and technologies, we find similar patterns across these sectors: immature technology is underestimated or misunderstood; large energy bills provide windows of opportunity for enactment; once enacted, policies are extended incrementally; there is increasing politicization as mature technology threatens incumbents.Acknowledgments: Thank you to Peter Dauvergne for feedback on earlier drafts.

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Section: Energy Transition Politicsmentioning

confidence: 57%

Politics in the U.S. energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind, biofuels and electric vehicles policy

2018

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“…Agent-based modeling studies [4,5] leverage data gathered at the national scale, such as PV cost trends, solar irradiance, and incentive programs, to identify the capacity and location of future installations. A complimentary body of studies focuses on evaluating policy trends in high solar penetration areas (e.g., California) to generalize the possible impacts and limitations for other societies and institutional frameworks [6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SolarView: Georgia Solar Adoption in Context

Tidwell

Nelson

et al. 2018

Data

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The local-national gap is a problem currently plaguing the adoption of emerging technologies targeted at resolving energy transition issues that are characterized by disparities in the adoption of innovations and policies on a local level in response to national policy implementation. These disparities reflect a complex system of technical, economic, social, political, and ecological factors linked to the perceptions held by communities and how they see energy development and national/global policy goals. This dataset is an attempt to bridge the local-national gap regarding solar PV adoption in the State of Georgia (U.S.) by aggregating variables from seven different publicly-available sources. The objective of this activity was to design a resource that would help researchers interested in the context underlying solar adoption on the local scale of governance (e.g., the county level). The SolarView database includes information necessary for informing policy-making activities such as solar installation information, a historical county zip code directory, county-level census data, housing value indexes, renewable energy incentive totals, PV rooftop suitability percentages, and utility rates. As this is a database from multiple sources, incomplete data entries are noted.

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“…The study concluded that passive solar houses may be net money losers in terms of heating costs, which "must have disappointed" the glass company. Hutchinson ended up having a "skeptical view of solar energy" [6]. Your Solar House editors, however, would misinterpret Hutchinson's conclusions in their enthusiastic introduction, by emphasizing "the seasonal saving that in most localities accompanies the use of large glass areas in south walls."…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The solar house in 1947

Denzer¹

2008

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

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Current explorations of the solar house share a rich underreported history, punctuated by a fascinating but little-known episode in America in 1947. In that year, Your Solar House, a book of 49 designs by prominent architects such as Louis Kahn, Edward Durell Stone, and Pietro Belluschi, was published. Organized by the Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company, the project was intended for the public as "a book of inspirations rather than of specific patterns."What did the 'solar house' mean in the mid-20th century? This research concludes that the concept of a solar house possessed a distinct currency in 1945-47 among professionals and the public, but that Your Solar House architects possessed an impressionistic notion of the solar house, rather than a rigorous set of expectations. As a result, the architects submitted a wide variety of aesthetic responses with little attention to studying solar performance. The project overall failed to provide the solar house movement with any technical advances, nor a clear architectural identity. This paper also analyzes this project's larger historical significance as an early instance when energy-related concerns became (temporarily) central to the architectural discourse, contrary to the usual portrayal of the solar house movement as a contemporary concern with its origins in the energy crisis of the 1970s, an approach which ignores pioneering experiments of the mid-20th century. This paper also discusses the 1947 exhibition within the larger historical and theoretical context of solar house experiments of the same era.

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Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

Politics in the U.S. energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind, biofuels and electric vehicles policy

Politics in the U.S. energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind, biofuels and electric vehicles policy

SolarView: Georgia Solar Adoption in Context

The solar house in 1947

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