Comparing Renewable Energy policies in four countries & overcoming consumers´ adoption barriers with REIS

Although consumers´ adoption rate of Renewable Energy (RE) have increased in recent years, yet feedback and surveys have shown the barriers for RE adoption are largely due to factors of initial investment cost, lack of RE awareness, and perceived lack of reliability of the technologies. Therefore, overcoming the effects of these barriers is becoming important in order to influence consumers´ RE adoption behavior and attitudes. RE policies and regulations in many countries around the world have been established in order to promote adoption of RE. This paper first outlines and compares the key strategies and policies between four developed countries: Australia, the United States of America, United Kingdom and Singapore. It then presents the development of Renewable Energy Intelligence System, a knowledge portal tool which aims to provide knowledge and increase awareness of RE. Hence, it is expected that the portal will influence consumers´ decision towards the adoption of RE.