ABSTRACT
Energy security involves how to equitably provide available, affordable, reliable, efficient, environmentally benign, properly governed and socially acceptable energy services. The nonprofit company Grameen Shakti (GS) provides financial and technical assistance for renewable energy projects in rural Bangladesh. One assessment calculated that improved cook stoves in China have eliminated four million working days per year from collecting fuel. Similarly, the Brazilian ethanol program funded itself from a tax on petroleum therefore born by all drivers. In Denmark, guaranteed access to the electricity grid minimized barriers to market entry and prevented utilities from using their market power or power of incumbency to block renewable energy projects. Each case demonstrates some of the benefits of organizational multiplicity, or having multiple regulators with overlapping jurisdiction. The enduring lesson from the cases is that policymakers often focus on responding to energy problems by creating the right technology, but the study here affirms that engendering right sort of political environment can be just as meaningful.
