Get green, but locally!

About a decade ago I wrote a paper on renewable energy and local content requirements. It was in the context of compatibility with various provisions of WTO law. The paper is here - titled "Renewable Energy Programmes in the European Union, Japan and the United States - Compatibility with WTO Law".

Nearly a decade later, things don't seem to have changed. Came across this PIIE piece by Megan Hogan on the same theme. Writing in her piece "Local content requirements threaten renewable energy uptake" she has argued that such domestic content requirements lead to increase in cost, reduce quality and effects the end consumer and power producers the most in terms of increased cost. Two interesting illustrations that buttress her case:

She concludes: 

"In the end, for all their well-meaning intentions, LCRs tend to drive up cost,hamper international competition, and increase investment risk and uncertaint, inhibiting rather than encouraging local manufacturing. If the goal of renewable energy policy is to make solar PV and wind energy more affordable and widely used, local content requirements are an obstacle, not a solution."

The trend seems to indicate an increase in local content requirements in renewable energy programs across geographies - developed and developing. Get green, but locally!