The following presentation by ILSR Senior Researcher John Farrell examines the five major barriers to the expansion of community-based and conventional distributed renewable energy. The barriers range from the challenge of raising capital to forming a legal structure that allows for local ownership and for access to tax incentives. It also examines the uphill struggle against utility and regulatory inertia toward large scale power generation and utility hostility to local power generation because of its threat to their market share.
There are also several examples of community-based projects that have succeeded despite the challenges, and that offer models for promoting clean, local power generation.
