Policy Building Blocks: Helping Policymakers Determine Policy Staging for the Development of Distributed PV Markets

There is a growing body of qualitative and a limited body of quantitative literature supporting the common assertion that policy drives development of clean energy resources. Recent work in this area indicates that the impact of policy depends on policy type, length of time in place, and economic and social contexts of implementation. This work aims to inform policymakers about the impact of different policy types and to assist in the staging of those policies to maximize individual policy effectiveness and development of the market. To do so, this paper provides a framework for policy development to support the market for distributed photovoltaic systems. Next steps include mathematical validation of the framework and development of specific policy pathways given state economic and resource contexts.