Increasing economies of scale, more competitive supply chains and further technological improvements will continue reducing the costs of solar and wind power. The same factors will also boost the availability of these key renewable power sources at night and in varying weather conditions. With the right policies in place, the cost of electricity from solar...

Summary Critics put forward two key arguments against widespread adoption of renewable energy: price and intermittency. Solar and wind costs have fallen so rapidly over the past decade that they are now competitive with fossil fuels, so the price argument is losing traction. Battery and other forms of storage technology are rapidly overcoming the variability...

In mid-2015, the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) was reduced from 41,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) to 33,000 GWh by 2020. The positive for the industry was that the amended legislation ended almost two years of uncertainty and frozen investment. The amendment also removed the provision for a review of the scheme every two years, locking in...

Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are uniquely positioned—and publicly committed—to ending energy poverty. However, MDBs’ common approach to energy access often overlooks the particular ability that decentralized renewable energy (DR energy or DRE) enterprises have to radically alter the access timeline. Seeking the fastest path to universal energy access, Power for All has identified three specific...

Bioenergy is renewable energy generated from biological source materials, and includes electricity, transportation fuels and heating. Source materials are varied types of biomass, including food crops such as corn and sugarcane, non-edible lignocellulosic materials such as agricultural and forestry waste and dedicated crops, and municipal and livestock wastes. Key aspects of policies for bioenergy deployment...