Barriers to Wind and Solar Development

Citizens' Climate Lobby
Project completed June 2015

Synapse prepared a report on the key institutional, regulatory, and market barriers to the expansion of wind and solar development in the near term. Despite the declining costs of these technologies, their expansion is limited by technical issues and by "virtual" inefficiencies—limitations associated with structures, communications, and procedures that have adapted in a localized, fossil fuel-centric power market. The Synapse report addresses transmission and other technical barriers, administrative burdens that stall development, uncertain renewable energy policies that weaken incentives, and rate design that negatively impacts distributed generation. The report also addresses supposed barriers such as threats to system stability from the addition of intermittent renewables that—it turns out—will not be an issue for many years.