15 October 2007

Today:

• Saved IEA policy reports for Denmark, Germany, Japan, Spain, U.K. and U.S. to the Z:// drive.
• Read through most of the German report - interesting, but thought it was too slow going. Printed out just the Renewable Energy chapters and read Denmark's.
• IEA (an OECD organiation) is very pro-market, so while they acknowledge the success of feed-in tariffs, they strongly suggest moving toward quota systems. Denmark report seems even more hostile. References report showing that Denmark's subsidies for renewable energy provided negative social benefit, even after generous allowances for carbon costs were taken into account.
• On RenewableEnergyAccess.com, learned that NY has just implemented $10 million grant program to lure RE manufacturers.
  
• In jobs section, focus on broad-brush portraits of the various RE industries. In cost section, focus on who pays for various financial incentive programs (tax dollars or surcharge to consumers).

Next time:

• Continue reading RE sections of country reports.
• Read country outlines of Mallon book.
• Begin writing before doing too much more preliminary research. It will help to know exactly what information is necessary.