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Given the challenges presented by climate change, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity, virtually everybody agrees that “business as usual” in energy production and consumption is no longer tenable. However, for all the compelling reasons to increase the share of energy generated from renewable sources, the development of renewable energy sectors has varied widely across countries. In some economies, more than 30 percent of electricity are now generated from renewable sources, while others have made few attempts to establish domestic renewable energy sectors. This course will examine what's driving the remarkable growth in some countries while others lag behind. To understand such variation, this course provides an in-depth look at the policies and economics of renewable energy – from large scale wind and solar to distributed generation (DG) resources such as rooftop solar, micro-grids, and storage in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Weekly, discussion-intensive class meetings examine how specific national and state policies are driving growth in renewable energy sectors, how these policies impact renewable energy projects (large and small scale), how and why these policies have differed across nations and over time, and what factors have contributed to policy failure.