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Demand response participation in wholesale markets is an important building block in a profound transformation of electricity systems in the United States and Europe. Technical and economic innovations, supported by governmental policies, are moving electricity systems toward smart grids that integrate generation, transmission and distribution in a more networked, environmentally responsible and efficient manner, incorporating distributed energy resources and delivering benefits for utilities and consumers. As one component of smart grids, consumers, utilities and regional grid operators may benefit from more use of demand response programmes that reduce peak power consumption and market price spikes, balance intermittency of renewables and achieve greater grid efficiency and reliability.

This chapter addresses the "stigmatized sites" located in urban areas in the United States and Europe and the "brownfields" redevelopment programs aimed at removing the stigma and promoting remediation and reuse of these sites. Although the European Union has put regulatory frameworks in place, the United States has led the global effort to address brown fields redevelopment, and the discussion in this chapter will focus on American models for brown fields remediation and reuse.

This chapter covers energy law, which focuses on the production, distribution, conservation, and development of energy resources. State and federal energy laws and regulations are designed to keep prices to consumers down (particularly in certain energy industries which state and federal governments monitor to keep markets as competitive as possible) and to address economic, environmental, and national security issues.

The technology already exists to put solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on millions of homes, but we have paid inadequate attention to getting them there. This current lack of focus on distribution will limit residential solar deployment indefinitely, unless it is addressed soon. While a number of solutions to this problem have been proposed or are in various stages of implementation, this Article finds that given the pressing need to address climate change, more rapid action is needed. In addition to pursuing other options for generating electricity using renewables (including onshore and offshore wind power, and utility-scale solar power stations), and ramping up energy efficiency and conservation efforts, we must achieve routinization in residential solar. The process of adding PV panels to American houses must become as routine as a car purchase. Residential solar can only become a widespread consumer product when the purchase and installation process transforms frorh a model that resembles custom construction (with individual homeowners effectively serving as general contractors) to one that is virtually transparent to the consumer. Overcoming the entrenched position of electric utilities, and their extensive system of subsidies, requires government support of firms that will take on the responsibility of offering residential homeowners solar panel systems. I have previously termed such firms "solar utilities" and explain in this Article why they (or some other new form of market entrant such as smart grid companies) must supplant the nascent industry of residential solar companies.