Scaling Up Renewables

The report identifies that non-financial barriers—such as a lack of long-term planning, poor inter-agency coordination, and inadequate grid capacity—are concentrated in the early planning stages of the renewable energy life cycle. Using five reference countries (Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, and South Africa), the document argues that financial incentives alone are insufficient for scaling renewables. It recommends the creation of 'one-stop shop' regulatory windows, comprehensive resource mapping, and the restructuring of vertically integrated electricity markets to provide transparent price signals. The report emphasizes that governments must lead these reforms to reduce investor risk and enable the transition from niche to mainstream renewable energy markets.

• Non-financial challenges, including regulatory frameworks, administrative processing times, and grid access, are as critical as financial incentives for enabling renewable energy to reach scale.
• Five dominant non-financial challenges were identified across all five reference countries: absence of long-term planning, lack of coordination between authorities, lack of experience among decision-makers, electricity market structure, and limited grid capacity and coverage.
• The majority of infrastructure and regulatory barriers occur during the 'Planning and Policy Development' stage of the renewable energy life cycle, which can prevent markets from expanding if not addressed early.
• Vertically integrated national electricity companies often hinder private investment by obscuring demand signals and price transparency, necessitating the role of independent regulators.
• Grid capacity is a significant barrier, particularly in remote regions where renewable resources are most abundant, such as the isthmus region in Mexico.
• A lack of technical expertise and industry familiarity among government decision-makers leads to risk aversion and slower processing of project permits.
• The report recommends establishing 'one-stop shops' or single-window systems to streamline private sector interaction and reduce transaction costs and administrative delays.
• Comprehensive and granular resource mapping is essential for attracting foreign developers and optimizing project siting, though costs are often a barrier.
• Future challenges for maturing markets include 'capacity attrition' (the loss of trained regulatory staff) and trade barriers created by local job policies that fragment markets.

APA

World Economic Forum (2011). Scaling Up Renewables. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EN_ScalingUpRenewables_Report_2011.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Scaling Up Renewables. 2011. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EN_ScalingUpRenewables_Report_2011.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Scaling Up Renewables |date=April 2011 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EN_ScalingUpRenewables_Report_2011.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2011scaling, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Scaling Up Renewables}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2011}, month = apr, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_EN_ScalingUpRenewables_Report_2011.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }