The Future of Renewables: An Appraisal of Feed-in-Tariffs and Renewable Portfolio Standards

In recent years, a strong interest in renewable energy and supporting policies have burgeoned. The most popular of these are Renewable Portfolio Standards and Feed-in-Tariff systems. A policy of choice may be implemented by an entire country such as Feed-in-Tariffs in Germany and Japan and/or could be state-specific within a country. This article studies the existing literature to understand the theoretical and normative workings of both policies and argues that while both policies together and/or separately have proven pros and cons, the future of renewables must depend on case-specific factors. One size usually does not fit all, certainly not when determining a renewables future. While a basic policy may be determined, the nuances have to be localized depending on a country and state’s tax structure, renewable energy availability and other such factors.