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Types Of Re Policies On The Growth Of Renewable Energy Sources And Technologies

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Chapter 3- Comparison of RE policies

This chapter will examine the available literature on policies used to encourage the growth of renewable energy sources and technologies. A wide variety of policies have been introduced around the world with differing levels of success. This chapter will look at some of them and discuss whether Scotland should adopt, intensify or even abandon each one.

Research and Development support

Although the majority of research and development funding is generally supplied by the private sector, many countries do employ programs that help to support it.
There are several reasons why such programs may be necessary in order to encourage research and innovation. It may simply be that private investors may have …show more content…

This highlights the need for government support especially among the less mature technologies. Due to the unpredictable returns from each project the literature suggests that the government should diversify support for research. “In a situation where failure is more likely than success, but the successes will have great social value, government can bear the costs of a diversified R&D portfolio more easily than any one private firm.”(Popp, 2010)
The Scottish government offers various schemes to encourage renewable R&D. Firstly there is the Energy Technology Partnership, which is an alliance between 12 Scottish universities who are engaged in energy research. It is the largest partnership of its kind in Europe and is funded to carry out research, exchange knowledge, offer discounted courses on areas of the energy sector and to improve links within the industry.
Scottish Enterprise through its Renewable Energy Investment Fund also offers various loans and grants to eligible projects. In addition the Saltire prize was introduced to Scotland in 2008 in an attempt to encourage wave and tidal energy research and development. It is a ten million pound prize that is open to any individual or team from across the world. To win you must generate the most electricity (a minimum of 100 GWh) over a continuous two year period using only

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