Voluntary demand for renewable energy could play a critical role in driving renewable energy deployment and grid decarbonization. An ongoing discourse explores how to optimize the impacts of voluntary demand on renewable energy deployment. Some stakeholders and scholars assert that broad classes of voluntary procurement strategies do not affect renewable energy deployment, despite the complexity of voluntary markets and the broad recognition of the importance of voluntary demand among many stakeholders. Here, a critical examination of that discourse is provided through insights from a case study of semi-structured interviews with renewable energy developers, investors, power producers, electricity buyers, and subject matter experts. The focus of this study is on demand for electricity generated from renewable energy resources, though the insights may be valuable for smaller voluntary markets for renewable fuels. The interviewee perspectives suggest that voluntary demand plays important roles in renewable energy deployment decisions and that the impacts of voluntary demand are more complex than what is often portrayed in simplified narratives in the literature. The case study provides insights into how practitioners view the role of voluntary renewable energy demand in driving the clean energy transition.
Eric O’Shaughnessy (Thu,) studied this question.
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