LinkedIn

twitter

YouTube

Back to CESC

Solar Power

More energy from the sun falls on the earth in one hour than is used by the world in one year. This substantial, renewable resource provides countries with an effective means of generating electricity and providing heating and cooling, and lighting. From small to large scale, solar energy can be harnessed through a variety of technologies and building design approaches that save energy, minimize environmental impacts and reduce operational costs. Countries have employed an array of mandates, incentives and deployment programs to promote the use of solar power. This page provides access to technical resources that policymakers can use to inform the design and implementation of policies and programs to advance deployment of solar power technologies.

Before you begin your search for solar policy resources, you can learn more about solar power development by reading our policy brief on solar power, which outlines good practices, provides design considerations, and shares examples of solar power in action in various countries.

Resources CESC

Sectors-cesc
Resources countries

Deployment Data

Policy Data

Publication

2010 Solar Technologies Market Report

This report provides an overview of the U.S. solar electricity market, including photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies.…

Sources:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Date:

1 November 2011

Publication

2010 Clean Energy Investments: Project Summaries

This report looks at the growing energy demands in the Asia and Pacific regions and the complications involved in trying…

Sources:

Asian Development Bank

Date:

1 June 2011

Publication

Tools and Websites

Training Materials

2010 China-United States Renewable Energy Grid Integration Workshop (Website)

This website provides 16 presentations from a workshop held in Beijing, 7-8 December 2010, as well as a workshop summary.…

Sources:

The China Sustainable Energy Program

Deployment Data

Publication

2009 Reference Case Scenario: Canadian Energy Demand and Supply to 2020

This report analyses the trends for the energy supply and demand in Canada. The report predicts an increasing usage of…

Sources:

National Energy Board of Canada

Date:

1 July 2009

Publication

1.0 Primer on Rate Design For Residential Distributed Generation

This paper identifies options to update net metering policies, including demand charges, buy-sell arrangements, fixed monthly charges, time-varying rates, capacity…

Sources:

Edison Electric Institute

Date:

1 February 2016

Deployment Data

Publication

2011 Technology Map of the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan)

This report is produced yearly by the European Commission in order to provide: 1) a concise and authoritative assessment of…

Sources:

European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Energy and Transport

Date:

1 January 2011

Publication

A Guidebook on Grid Interconnection and Islanded Operation of Mini-Grid Power Systems Up to 200 kW

This guidebook provides guidance, standards and procedures for interconnecting mini grids with a central electric grid as rural electrification advances…

Sources:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Schatz Energy Research Center

Date:

1 April 2013

Publication

A Guide to Community Solar: Utility, Private, and Non-Profit Project Development

This guide explores the range of solar energy incentives and policies while providing examples of operational community solar projects, thereby…

Sources:

United States Department of Energy

United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development

Keyes and Fox

Stoel Rives

Bonneville Environmental Foundation

Date:

1 November 2010

Publication

A Growing and Evolving Market for Off-grid Lighting Market Presence of Off-Grid Lighting Products in the Kenyan Towns of Kericho, Kapkugerwet (Brooke), and Talek

This report focuses on the market presence of off-grid lighting products in three towns in Kenya. It is based on…

Sources:

World Bank

Date:

31 January 2013

Policy Data

Publication

A Generalized Approach to Assessing the Rate Impacts of Net Energy Metering

This report assesses the impact of net metering on billing rates in order to determine whether they are responsible for…

Sources:

Solar America Board for Codes and Standards

Date:

1 January 2012

Publication

Tools and Websites

Training Materials

A Farmer's Guide to Energy Self Reliance: How to Decrease Energy Consumption and Increase Profits

This quick guide is designed to help farmers understand the opportunities for energy efficiency and energy production that are available…

Sources:

Vermont Law School: Institute for Energy and the Environment

Ag Energy Solutions

Date:

1 September 2008

Publication

A Review of Emerging State Finance Tools to Advance Solar Generation

This guide explores several of the most promising financing mechanisms that can be integrated into renewable portfolio standard (RPS) programs:…

Sources:

CleanEnergy States Alliance

Date:

1 March 2010

Publication

A Review of Alternative Rate Design: Industry Experience with Time-Based and Demand Charge Rates for Mass-Market Consumers

This report provides a meta-analysis of numerous existing studies, reports, and analyses to support an objective assessment of the efficacy…

Sources:

Rocky Mountain Institute

Date:

1 May 2016

Tools and Websites

A Regulator’s Guidebook: Calculating the Benefits and Costs of Distributed Solar Generation

This paper offers lessons learned from the 16 regional and utility-specific, distributed solar generation studies summarized in A Review of…

Sources:

Interstate Renewable Energy Council

Inc.

Rábago Energy LLC.

Date:

1 March 2014

Publication

A Reformed Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) – Including new Mechanisms for Sustainable Development

The second of the Capacity for Development for the Clean Development Mechanism (CD4CDM) perspectives series, this collection of 13 papers…

Sources:

United Nations

Date:

1 January 2008

Deployment Data

Policy Data

Publication

A Policymaker's Guide to Feed-In Tariff Policy Design

This report provides a detailed analysis of feed-in tariff (FIT) policy design and implementation, and it identifies a set of…

Sources:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

United States Department of State

E3 Analytics

Date:

1 July 2010

Publication

A Policy Framework for Designing Distributed Generation Tariffs

This paper is designed to (1) explain how certain policies enable utility distributed generation (DG) customers to avoid paying for…

Sources:

Edison Electric Institute

Date:

1 December 2013

Deployment Data

Publication

A New Scheme for the Promotion of Renewable Energies in Developing Countries: The Renewable Energy Regulated Purchase Tariff

This report sets out the main findings of discussions carried out by the Developing Countries Group of the European Photovoltaic…

Sources:

European Commission

Alliance for Rural Electrification

PhotoVoltaic Technology Platform