Full Description
Distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar panels, microgrids, and residential battery storage are reshaping electricity systems by enabling autonomous consumption and localised generation. They challenge the traditional centralised power model and offer significant potential for decarbonisation, decentralisation, digitisation, and democratisation—essential pillars for the energy transition.
However, the DER revolution is not purely technological; it beckons important legal and policy changes too. While the need for DERs is widely recognised, their design, financing, and implementation can present complex economic, environmental, social, and governance risks including land tenure issues, legal liability, and protracted disputes. Electricity laws and policies—often drafted decades ago—are increasingly ill-equipped to address the challenges of integrating these technologies.
At the same time, communities are demanding a greater role in shaping DER law and policy, calling for inclusive frameworks that ensure equitable access, data privacy, consumer protection, participation, human rights, and gender justice—particularly in low-income and indigenous communities.
Sustainable Distributed Energy Resources: Law and Policy explores how legal and regulatory systems worldwide are responding to these challenges. Through a sustainability lens, it offers practical tools for managing legal, contractual, and governance risks across the DER value chain and presents a roadmap for improving coherence in the design, financing, generation, and consumption of DERs. It also highlights the role of energy entrepreneurship education in building a secure and inclusive energy future.
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This book is the result of a long-standing collaboration between the International Bar Association's Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure Law (IBA SEERIL), Oxford University Press (OUP), and the Academic Advisory Group (AAG) of IBA SEERIL. The International Bar Association is the world's largest organization of lawyers and bar associations. As an active section of the IBA, SEERIL leads public interest initiatives and keeps its members informed about key developments across its six committees: Environment, Health and Safety Law; International Construction Projects; Mining Law; Oil and Gas Law; Power Law; and Water Law. The AAG is a network of academics engaged in research and teaching in areas relevant to SEERIL's work.
Contents
1: Íñigo del Guayo: Introduction: Distributed Energy Resources as the New Electricity Paradigm: Legal Context and Principles
Part I. DERs and the Sustainable Decarbonization of Electricity Systems
2: Damilola S Olawuyi: International Law on Distributed Energy Resources
3: Hanri Mostert, Jacques Jacobs, and Wikus Kruger: From Coal to Distributed Energy: Sustainable Decarbonization and Decentralization of Electricity Systems
4: Godswill Agbaitoro and Hugo Meyer van den Berg: Land Tenure, Project Siting, and Environmental Aspects of DERs
5: Louis de Fontenelle: Sustainability Challenges of Small Modular Reactors in Distributed Energy Systems
6: Elena I Athwal: Distributed Energy Storage
Part II. Sustainable Decentralization and Digitalization of Energy Systems
7: Martha M Roggenkamp: Cross-border Distributed Energy in the EU
8: Barry Barton: Decentralization with Distributed Energy Resources in New Zealand
9: Hao Zhang: Decentralizing China's Energy Future
10: José Juan González Márquez, Ivett Montelongo Buenavista, Ana Laura Silva López, and Juan Manuel Zamora Velázquez: Energy Decentralization and Human Rights in Mexico
11: LeRoy Paddock: Behind-the-Meter Distributed Generation: Lessons from the United States
12: Tasniem Ahmed Elyass Hussain: Financing Distributed Energy Infrastructure: The Role of Islamic Finance
13: David Robinson: Demand-Side Aggregation of Distributed Energy Resources
14: Lee Godden: Digitization of Networks and Data Protection
Part III. Sustainable Democratization of Energy Systems
15: Kaisa Huhta and Emma Merikanto: The Role of Active Consumers in Decentralized Energy Systems
16: Nadia B Ahmad, Kierra Peoples, Evangeline Fletcher, and Brianna Pruitt: Sustainable Energy Democratization Through Community-Centric Models
17: Milton Fernando Montoya and José Vicente Zapata: The Role of Energy Communities in a New Decentralized Energy Model: Legal Progress and Challenges in Colombia
18: Pedi Obani and Adenike Akinsemolu: Gender Justice and Decentralized Energy Resources: Perspectives from the United Kingdom and Nigeria
19: Kehinde Folake Olaoye and Josephine Ilesanmi: Eco-Entrepreneurship Law and Distributed Energy Resources
20: Alastair R Lucas and Allan E Ingelson: Entrepreneurial Legal Education and Energy Democratization: An Indigenous Renewable Distributed Energy Clinic
