The role of innovation - Solar, Wind and Land: Conflicts in Renewable Energy Development - page 204

first state in the United States to mandate that its major power companies
purchase energy storage capacity to help mitigate grid-related impacts from
the state's growing use of intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar
energy. 40 This mandate issued by the California Public Utility Commission
will not only help facilitate continued renewable energy development in
the state; it will also spur additional investment in mid- to large-scale
energy storage research and thereby help to accelerate innovation in this
important industry. Affordable energy storage technologies of all sizes will
be needed as the world inches ever closer toward the utopian goal of a truly
sustainable energy system.
Policy innovation
Although advancements in renewable energy policy tend to garner far less
attention than innovations in technology , policy ingenuity also has a vital
role to play in furthering the global transition to sustainable energy. Feed-in
tariffs, mandatory net metering programs, tax credit schemes, renewable
portfolio standards, solar access, solar rights statutes, and dozens of
other creative policies have already done much to propel renewable
energy growth throughout the world. However, significantly more policy
innovation will be needed for the renewable energy movement to steadily
progress throughout the twenty-first century.
Renewable energy technologies have developed at a blistering pace in
recent years, achieving ever greater levels of efficiency and sophistication.
As highlighted in this topic, these advancements are raising numerous
legal and policy questions that remain unaddressed in many jurisdictions
around the world. In this environment of rapid innovation, stale policies
could unnecessarily hinder the global energy transition unless policymakers
manage to keep up with all of these technological changes.
Among other things, policymakers are increasingly grappling with how
to clarify and allocate property interests in some natural resources that had
little commercial value until the advent of renewable energy technologies.
For instance, in this era of solar panels, should policymakers reconsider
laws governing landowners' rights to have direct sunlight strike their land?
Given the growing value of wind resources, should landowners possess any
legally protected property rights in the wind that passes over their parcels?
And how, if at all, should property law respond to the the advent of deep
offshore and airborne wind technologies? In jurisdictions where these sorts
of questions are left unaddressed, uncertainty about the nature and scope
of the property rights involved in renewable energy development can chill
investment and hinder valuable projects. As suggested in earlier chapters,
clear, carefully-tailored property rights regimes are paramount in the effort
to overcome uncertainty in these contexts.
Innovative policies are also needed to govern the ever growing list of
tensions between renewable energy development and traditional land