Renewable Portfolio Standard Development Assessment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from the Perspective of Policy Networks Theory

Electricity generation from renewable energy (RE) sources has not been well utilized in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). KSA has publicized its Vision 2030 renewable energy target to deploy 58.7 gigawatts of RE, paving the way for a low-carbon economy in the country. Renewable portfolio standard (RPS) may play an influential role as a policy instrument to stimulate the RE development and consumption on a large scale and pursue the Vision 2030 objectives. In this study, the renewable portfolio standards policy assessment was carried out to investigate the issues impelling the employment of or plan to adopt RPS. To elucidate the collaborating interaction amongst the multiple stakeholders at different levels in the formulation of renewable portfolio standard, in this assessment study, we used a multi-theoretical approach for examining the policy networks theory (PNT) to inspect the communication links and strategies of different actors who are responsible and involved in KSA policy formulation and enactment. It will help overcome the interaction limitations amongst the actors, contribute to understanding various actors’ behaviors and facilitate RPS development and implementation. In this paper, PNT’s four strategy phases (interaction, agenda-setting, action plan and legislative) are used for RPS development assessment. In this paper, we presented KSA’s overall systematic picture for RPS formulation to adopt and implement it practically for a collaborative relationship between five actors—policy and regulatory bodies, professional bodies, inter-governmental bodies, power producers and social networks—at different levels by using PNT to analyze the interactive relationship amongst actors. This detailed analysis will help KSA overcome the institutional relationship and interaction limitations of the actors in RPS formulation and thereby offer significant success for RE deployment in KSA, while providing viable ideas, procedures and bases for government departments to formulate applicable policies for the renewable energy system efficiently. The evaluation of the communications among major partakers in the policy network field helps to efficiently explicate the hindrances in policy formulation and enactment to make the RPS more effective.

Assessing the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Alternative Renewable Portfolio Standards: Winners and Losers

State-mandated renewable portfolio standards affect substantial portions of the total U.S. electricity supply. Renewable portfolio standards are environmentally motivated policies, yet they have the potential to greatly impact economy. There is not an agreement in the literature on the impact of renewable portfolio standards policies on regional economies, especially on job creation. By integrating various methodologies including econometrics, geographic information system, and input–output analysis into a unique system dynamics model, this paper estimates the economic and environmental impacts of various renewable portfolio standards scenarios in the state of New Mexico, located in Southwestern U.S. The state is endowed with traditional fossil fuel resources and substantial renewable energy potential. In this work we estimated and compared the economic and environmental tradeoffs at the county level under three renewable portfolio standards: New Mexico’s original standard of 20% renewables, the recently adopted 100% renewables standard, and a reduced renewable standard of 10%. The final one would be a return to a more traditional generation profile. We found that while the 20% standard has the highest market-based economic impact on the state as a whole, it is not significantly different from other scenarios. However, when environmental impacts are included, the 100% standard yields the highest value. In addition, while the state level economic impacts across the three scenarios are not significantly different, the county-level impacts are substantial. This is especially important for a state like New Mexico, which has a high reliance on energy for economic development. A higher renewable portfolio standard appears to be an economic tool to stimulate targeted areas’ economic growth. These results have policy implications.

Thirty states of renewability: Controversial energies and the politics of incumbent industry

Renewable energy advocates have positioned a wide array of technologically novel energy sources as fossil fuel alternatives. These efforts to usher in renewable energy transitions have long been shaped by definitional contestations. Political ecological scholarship tells us that such definitions are meaningful. Indeed, labeling energy sources as renewable has become a power-laden act, which may spark innovation, yet simultaneously creates openings for problematic classifications and unjust socio-ecological relations. However, we still know too little about how such classification politics are taking shape within green industrial policy formation; particularly, how they encounter incumbent industries and industrial regions. In this paper, we argue that these theoretical questions are crucial for an emerging industrial political ecology and explore three recent developments in the US context. A country that has notoriously avoided open and coordinated national industrial policy, the United States has approached the renewable energy economy in a similarly geographically fragmented fashion. We highlight a central yet under-examined tool in US energy-industrial policy: the renewable portfolio standard. Mandated by 30 states, renewable portfolio standards are the US’s central mechanism for renewable energy procurement—yet renewable portfolio standards diverge substantially from state to state in terms of the energy sources they classify and incentivize as renewable. We argue that industrial interests and state governments have together capitalized upon renewable portfolio standards’ malleability to support regionally significant sectors, including “dirty” industries and industrial wastes. These industries, often controversially, thereby position themselves for rebranding and new forms of value capture.