2. Training

Renewable Energy Transition: The Future of Renewable Energy Policy (Webinar)

30 March 2016

The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with E3 Analytics, hosted this webinar on the key findings of the recently published report, RE-TRANSITION: Policy Frameworks for Cost-competitive Renewables (PDF), which lays out a new overarching framework for understanding the evolution of renewable energy policy.

In previous decades, the underlying aim of renewable energy policy was clear: to bridge the cost gap between renewable and conventional sources of generation. But with that gap narrowing and even disappearing in many jurisdictions, a growing number of policymakers are beginning to ask what the future of renewable energy policy could look like. Should policy support be phased out altogether? What kinds of new and innovative policies could be implemented instead? Alternatively, can policy efforts shift simply to provide a level playing field for different generation technologies and let the market sort out the rest?

In attempting to answer these and other difficult questions, the report draws on the latest thinking and analysis to provide a host of insights into what the future of renewable energy policy might look like. The report was commissioned by the International Energy Agency’s Renewable Energy Technology Deployment division and generously supported by the Clean Energy Solutions Center.

Presentations were followed by an interactive question and answer session with the audience.

Presenter

Toby Couture Toby Couture

Toby Couture is Founder and Director of E3 Analytics, an international renewable energy consultancy based in Berlin, Germany. He works on a wide range of topics in renewable energy including policy and regulatory analysis, market research, strategy consulting, and finance. He has worked extensively with policymakers and regulators on renewable energy strategy and has advised over forty national governments around the world. He is the author of several reports on renewable energy policy, and has partnered with several leading international organizations working to support the scale-up of clean energy, including IRENA, the IEA, GIZ, UNEP, UNIDO, as well as the IFC. Prior to founding E3 Analytics in 2009, Mr. Couture worked as Energy and Financial Markets Analyst at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Colorado. Toby is a previous recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, has studied renewable energy finance in France and obtained a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy from the University of Moncton in Canada, as well as an MSc. in Financial and Commercial Regulation from the London School of Economics in the UK. He currently lives in Berlin.