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The politics of (bad) policy design: French solar panels and Northern Irish boilers

Environmental Europe

From the abrupt halt to support to photovoltaics in Spain in 2009 to issues with the territorial planning of incentivised wind power in France and Germany (or near Donald Trump’s golf course …) renewable energy policy can prove hard to manage, even (or especially?) when it relies on apparently simple market-based instruments.

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Nuclear Plant Closures And Renewables Increase Electricity Prices & Unreliability, Testifies Michael Shellenberger to U.S. Senate

Environmental Progress

4] Meanwhile, many experts see in recent trends an inevitable transition away from coal and nuclear power plants, designed to function as baseload capacity, toward variable renewable energy sources with just-in-time natural gas back-up. The answer is that there was a lot more generating capacity in 2006 than in 2020. 5] The U.S.