Renewable Energy Law is a part of energy law

Energy law

Energy laws govern the use and taxation of energy, both renewable and non-renewable. These laws are the primary authorities related to energy...

, and relates primarily to the transactional legal and policy issues that surround the development, implementation and commercialization of renewable sources energy, namely solar, wind, geothermal and tidal. Renewable energy law also relates to the landuse, siting, and finance issues encountered by developers of renewable energy projects.

Renewable energy lawyers and renewable energy law firms focus their practice on serving the legal needs of renewable energy project developers and companies that develop clean technologies. See clean tech law

Clean tech law

Clean Tech Law contemplates a diverse set of legal and policy issues related to the development and commercialization of clean technology. These issues range from conventional natural resources law to cutting-edge intellectual property issues related to synthetic genomics and advanced materials...

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Renewable energy law also encompasses policies that relate to renewable energy and legislative instruments that further encourage its growth. One such form of legislation is feed-in tariffs, which provide economic incentives to the developers of renewable energy projects by setting a fixed price for the sale of energy produced from renewable sources. Feed-in tariff

Feed-in Tariff

A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. It achieves this by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology...

 laws also provide financial certainty, are more cost effective and less bureaucratic than other support schemes such as investment or production tax credits, quota based renewable portfolio standards (RPS), and auction mechanisms. In addition, the feed-in tariff

Feed-in Tariff

A feed-in tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies. It achieves this by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology...

 generates more competition, more jobs and more rapid deployment for manufacturing, and does not pick technological winners, such as more mature wind power

Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....

 technology versus solar photovoltaics technology.

See also

• Clean tech law
  Clean tech law
  Clean Tech Law contemplates a diverse set of legal and policy issues related to the development and commercialization of clean technology. These issues range from conventional natural resources law to cutting-edge intellectual property issues related to synthetic genomics and advanced materials...
  
  
• Energy policy of the European Union
  Energy policy of the European Union
  Although the European Union has legislated in the area of energy policy for many years, and evolved out of the European Coal and Steel Community, the concept of introducing a mandatory and comprehensive European energy policy was only approved at the meeting of the European Council on 27 October...
  
  
• Green energy
• Cleantech Law Partners
• CleanTechLaw