Title of Dissertation: national renewable energy policy

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ABSTRACT 
Title of Dissertation: 
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY 
IN A GLOBAL WORLD 
Minji Jeong, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017 
Dissertation directed by: 
Nathan Hultman, Ph.D., Associate Professor, 
School of Public Policy, University of Maryland
Increasing trade of renewable energy products has significantly contributed to 
reducing the costs of renewable energy sources, but at the same time, it has generated 
protectionist policies, which may negatively affect the trend of the cost reduction. 
Although a few recent studies examined the rise of renewable energy protectionism and 
trade disputes, they are limited in addressing the conflict between the original goal of 
traditional renewable energy policies and the new protectionist policies under the 
globalized renewable energy industry. To fill this gap, this dissertation explores how the 
globalized renewable energy industry has changed national renewable energy policies. 
Through three analyses, three aspects of the globalized renewable energy industry are 
examined: the rise of multinational corporations, international interactions among actors, 
and the changes of the global and domestic market conditions. First analysis investigates 
how multinational renewable energy corporations have affected national policies. A 
content analysis of the annual reports of 15 solar photovoltaic multinational corporation 

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shows that solar multinationals have been influenced by national policies and have 
adapted to the changes rather than having attempted to change national policies. Second 
analysis examines how diverse actors have framed renewable energy trade issues through 
a network analysis of the Chinese solar panel issue in the United States. The result shows 
that the Chinese solar panel issue was framed differently from the traditional 
environmental frame of renewable energy, being dominated by multinational 
corporations headquartered in other countries. Third analysis explores what has caused 
the increasing diversity in national renewable energy policies through the case studies of 
the U.S. and South Korea. The result reveals that the globalization of solar industry has 
affected the diversification of solar policies in two countries by generating both 
challenges, which needed to be addressed by new and additional policies, and 
opportunities, which strengthened the political power of domestic solar industries. The 
three analyses show that the globalized renewable energy industry has led to the 
diversification of national renewable energy policies by increasing international 
interactions between actors and by introducing both challenges and opportunities to 
domestic renewable energy industries. This research contributes to the literature on trade 
and the environment by analyzing a new pattern of the conflicts between traditional 
environmental policies and “green” protectionist policies. It also contributes to the 
literature on protectionism by adding an empirical case of green protectionism, one of the 
forms of “murky” protectionism that has risen after the global financial crisis.

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NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY IN A GLOBAL WORLD 
by 
Minji Jeong 
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment 
of the requirements for the degree of 
Doctor of Philosophy 
2017 
 
Advisory Committee: 
Professor Nathan Hultman, Chair 
Professor Anand Patwardhan 
Dr. Leon Clarke 
Professor Virginia Haufler 
Professor Eun-Hee Kim 

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© Copyright by 
Minji Jeong 
2017 

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ii 
Dedication 
To Jungim Park and Guisoon Kim 

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iii 
Acknowledgements 
I am deeply grateful to my dissertation committee. Dr. Nathan Hultman has been 
a wonderful advisor throughout my graduate school years. I am indebted to him for his 
great guidance, support, and encouragement during my entire dissertation process. I was 
very fortunate to have him as my advisor. Dr. Anand Patwardhan’s challenges and advice 
made this research more rigorous. Dr. Virginia Haufler offered insightful comments from 
a broader political economic perspective. Dr. Leon Clarke’s advice led me to polish the 
research to better communicate with a diverse audience. Dr. Eun-Hee Kim provided 
thoughtful feedback on how my findings can be seen from business perspective. I thank 
all for their contributions. 
My interviewees in the United States and South Korea deserve special 
appreciation. They took time out of their busy schedules to speak with me. This research 
would have not been completed without their willingness to share their experience and 
perspectives with a student researcher. I also thank the solar people who talked to me and 
shared their thoughts and knowledge in many conferences, seminars, and workshops.
I would like to thank my family and friends in South Korea, who have faith in me 
all the time even when I could not believe in myself. Their love and support made me 
stay strong on the other side of the globe. I am also grateful to my housemates, Lucas Liu 
and Lu Liu, who distracted me very properly. Haewon McJeon, Sha Yu, Ryna Cui, Gokul 
Iyer, Naoko Aoki and many other alumni and students at the School of Public Policy 
provided enormous emotional and intellectual supports. I am also very thankful to 
Nayoung Jo, Jihyun Kim, Ria Joo and Katie Koo, who went through the final writing 
stage together. My friends at the Washington Jungto Society shared my tears when I had 

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iv 
the hardest time. Brian Barker read through a draft of this work, and provided me 
thoughtful feedback. His faith in my successful completion of this project helped me stay 
calm and strong at the later stages of the dissertation. 
I inherited my passion to learn from my mother and grandmother. They were not 
given the opportunity of higher education, but they have never stopped learning in their 
lives. My grandmother lifted herself out of illiteracy by self-learning and practiced 
reading and writing everyday even after she turned ninety years old. My mother, who 
loves intellectual challenges, is still learning something new. I believe that I was awarded 
an opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. degree thanks to their efforts to give their children better 
opportunities in life as well as being great role models. This dissertation is dedicated to 
these strong and wise women, Jungim Park and Guisoon Kim. 

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v 
Table of Contents 
List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii 
List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii 
Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 
Policy problem and research question ......................................................................................... 1
Global energy market and renewable energy .............................................................................. 8
International trade and the globalization of renewable energy industry .................................... 12
Rise of diverse corporate actors and diversified interests.......................................................... 17
Global political economy and renewable energy ....................................................................... 19
Research design ......................................................................................................................... 22
Contributions and policy implication ........................................................................................ 31
Organization of the book ........................................................................................................... 32
Chapter 2. Literature review ............................................................................................. 33 
Trade and the environment ........................................................................................................ 33
The rise of “murky” protectionism and green protectionism .................................................... 38
Institutional theory and institutional change: Theoretical framework for Analysis 1 and 
Analysis 2 .................................................................................................................................. 42
Globalization and policy convergence: Theoretical framework for Analysis 3 ........................ 54
Chapter 3. Global solar market and multinational corporate actors ................................. 60 
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 60
Data............................................................................................................................................ 62
Method ....................................................................................................................................... 65
Findings ..................................................................................................................................... 69
Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 83
Chapter 4. Politics in the U.S. solar PV field.................................................................... 86 
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 86
Trade disputes on solar panels between the U.S. and China ..................................................... 89
Data and method ........................................................................................................................ 92
Findings ..................................................................................................................................... 96
Discussion ................................................................................................................................ 104
Chapter 5. Solar policies and industry in the United States ............................................ 108 
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 108
Data and method ...................................................................................................................... 109
Solar PV and industry in the United States ............................................................................. 112
Federal solar policies ............................................................................................................... 119
Changes of the solar PV market environment ......................................................................... 129
The reactions of the solar PV industry to the changing environment ...................................... 142
Interactions between policies and industry .............................................................................. 148
Summary .................................................................................................................................. 150
Chapter 6. Solar policies and industry in South Korea ................................................... 152 
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 152
Data and method ...................................................................................................................... 154
Solar PV and industry in South Korea ..................................................................................... 156
National solar policies ............................................................................................................. 161

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vi 
Changes of the solar PV market environment ......................................................................... 175
The reactions of the solar PV industry to the changing environment ...................................... 181
Interactions between policies and industry .............................................................................. 185
Summary .................................................................................................................................. 187
Chapter 7. The evolution of solar policies ...................................................................... 190 
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 190
The global solar market and the changes of the domestic solar markets ................................. 190
Diversified policies and solar industry .................................................................................... 193
Factors for policy divergence .................................................................................................. 198
Complicated and murky renewable energy policies ................................................................ 201
Limitation ................................................................................................................................ 203
Chapter 8. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 204 
Interpretation of the findings of Analysis 1 and Analysis 2 .................................................... 205
Evaluating the propositions ..................................................................................................... 207
Contributions to the literature .................................................................................................. 208
Policy implications .................................................................................................................. 210
Limitation and future work ...................................................................................................... 212
Appendix A. List of interviews for the U.S. case study ................................................. 214 
Appendix B. List of interviews for the South Korea case study ..................................... 215 
Appendix C. List of observations ................................................................................... 216 
Appendix D. Interview questions ................................................................................... 218 
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 221