This dissertation investigates the relationship between electricity market reforms and the development of renewable energy through interviews with policymakers, energy experts, and industry representatives in Brazil. Within the context of market-oriented power reforms initiated in the 1990s, policymakers have attempted to diversify the energy supply and reduce the country’s reliance on hydroelectric power. However, Brazil’s pre-existing hydropower infrastructure has hindered the diffusion of alternative options. By looking at energy auctions and net-metering regulations for wind and solar energy, this research explores the role of independent regulators in facilitating the development of non-hydro renewable sources of energy. While academic and policy debates center on designing public support schemes for renewable energy, this research argues that adaptive regulation can provide opportunities for new technologies that policy instruments alone are unable to achieve. In particular, the governance characteristics of regulatory agencies are critical to the effective articulation of renewable energy policies. Three subnational case studies further demonstrate how states and regions contribute to developing and deploying wind and solar energy technologies.

This thesis makes contributions to provide the microeconomic evidence on the effects of electricity provision and on the feasibility of electricity provision via renewable energy in developing countries. Three selected topics are presented. First, we discuss how the impact of national electricity grid provision affects household welfare and individual labor activities in Vietnam. To overcome the endogeneity problem of infrastructure provision, the slope of the terrain is used as the instrumental variable. We present both first-difference regression and pooled regression results using household survey data and geographic datasets. The effect of electrification on female labor supply is negative, contrary to the evidence suggested in the previous literature. Second, we measure willingness to pay for solar lanterns among the poor rural households in India using the Becker-DeGrook-Marschak method. We conduct field surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of providing a trial period and postponed payment scheme to promote sales. Results show that willingness to pay for the solar product among the consumers is low. Lastly, we report patterns of awareness and interest in solar home systems (SHS) among the poor rural households in India. Results show that willingness to pay for SHS is low, even if the national subsidy is taken into account. Moreover, households that have experience using grid electricity have greater willingness to pay for SHS.