2016 National Renewable Energy Policy Forum

The 2016 National Renewable Energy Policy Forum: Driving Growth in a New Policy Landscape

This year’s Renewable Energy Policy Forum takes place as seismic developments in national and global policies are reshaping the renewable energy marketplace. In December, Congress enacted a major new tax package offering long-sought stability to the wind and solar power industries. Just two weeks earlier, 129 nations at the COP21 meetings in Paris reached agreement on an unprecedented global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Taken together, these developments are a source of immense promise for the future of renewable energy in the U.S. and around the world.

But important challenges remain. Other renewable technologies, including geothermal, hydro and biomass, secured a tax credit extension only through 2016, and will need quick action from Congress to keep their incentives in place. Meanwhile, the Clean Power Plan moves to the critical implementation stage, with states working on their compliance plans even as legal challenges work their way through the courts. With tax credits phasing down just as the deadlines for most ambitious emission reductions come into force, the Clean Energy Incentive Program, a promising but uncertain new element of the Clean Power Plan, may have a critical role to play.

Moreover, a whole new set of issues are moving towards center stage, and this year’s forum will provide in-depth analyses of these and other important policies and address the critical challenges that lie ahead, including the implementation of the Clean Power Plan, the achievement of the nation’s COP21 commitments, and the policy signals and business models needed to drive continued market evolution and expansion.