Title of Dissertation: national renewable energy policy

Figure 39.
Interactions between solar industry and policy in the U.S. 
In South Korea, the solar policies have also diversified. Since the declaration of 
Low Carbon Green Growth as a national vision, many policies to promote solar industry 
have been introduced. In the early days of solar market development, the government 
pursued both increasing solar installation and developing industry by the FIT and R&D 
support programs. However, after the globalization of the solar market, R&D support 
programs were not very helpful for solar PV industry since the manufacturers were more 
interested in surviving in the market rather than in developing technologies, which were 
for long-term growth. The solar corporations asked the government to engage in the 
international trade dispute on solar products. For the Korean solar corporations exporting 
a large share of their products, the rise of protectionism in many countries caused by the 
flood of Chinese solar panels was very risky.
Rather than engaging actively in the international trade dispute, Korean 
government has introduced the policies to support exports. It provided financial supports 
Investment 
Tax Credit
Clean Power Plan
Tariff on 
Chinese/Taiwanese 
solar panels
U.S. Solar Industry
Flood of Chinese solar 
products
Positive
Negative
State-level 
solar policies
Upstream
Downstream

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for exporters, and built international relations for solar corporations to enable developing 
solar projects abroad. These policies were different from the original renewable energy 
policies in that they do not contribute to increase solar installation in South Korea. These 
interactions between solar industry and policies are shown in Figure 40. 
Figure 40.
Interactions between solar industry and policy in South Korea. 
In both countries, the solar policies have diversified, and the solar industry has 
influenced this change. New types of policies have emerged because existing policies 
could not address the challenges in the solar market, and these challenges are mostly 
from the global market. In the U.S., the tariff has been implemented under the rising 
imports of low-priced Chinese solar panels. Korean solar companies have struggled under 
the international trade disputes and the policies of other countries to protect their 
domestic market. The government of Korea has introduced some measures to promote 
solar industry and the exports of solar corporations. These policies have been 
Promotion of 
exports
Industrial 
policies
Korean Solar Industry
Flood of Chinese 
solar products
RPS
FIT
Positive
Negative
U.S. Tariff on 
Chinese panels
Domestic content 
requirement
Upstream
Downstream

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implemented in the context that the industry has asked for a policy measure to address the 
international trade issue. 
Other than asking for a new measure to address market challenges, the industry 
also attempted to maintain favorable policies and to change the detailed rules of policies. 
The U.S. solar industry has affected the extension of the ITC, and the detailed rules of the 
CPP. Korean solar PV industry has suggested to the government the necessity of 
changing the rules of the RPS since the RPS has introduced much uncertainty in the solar 
market.
Figure 41 shows the causal mechanism of renewable energy policy change 
developed by the cases of two countries. Globalization of solar PV industry has positively 
affected the growth of downstream solar industry, but has posed challenges on upstream 
solar industry. Under these circumstances, struggling upstream industry has attempted to 
initiate or to suggest new policies such as the tariffs, industrial policies, or the supports 
for exports. These policies are different from traditional renewable energy policies in that 
they were introduced to protect domestic industry. Meanwhile, the whole solar industry 
has engaged in policymaking to maintain existing traditional renewable energy policies, 
and to make both traditional and non-traditional renewable energy policies more 
favorable for the solar PV industry. Globalization of solar PV industry has affected these 
efforts indirectly by leading the rise of downstream solar industry. 

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