A global, comparative study of the legal and sustainability challenges of distributed energy resources (DERs), this volume offers practical tools and governance strategies to support inclusive, secure, and decentralised energy systems for the future.
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.
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
Iñigo del Guayo is Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Almería, Spain, and Counsel at White & Case (Madrid office). He holds an LLM and a PhD from the University of Navarre, Spain. He has researched and published extensively in the fields of energy law, public economic law, and regulation, and is the author of more than 290 scholarly publications. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Group (AAG) of the Section on Energy, Environment, Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL) of the International Bar Association (IBA), and served as Chair of the group from 2020 to 2024. Professor del Guayo is a founding member and currently Vice-President of the Spanish Energy Law Association (AEDEN), a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Federation of Energy Law Associations (EFELA), and President of the Latin American Association for Energy Law (ASIDE).
Damilola S. Olawuyi, SAN is Professor and UNESCO Chair in Environmental Law and Sustainable Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar. He is also Director of the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development at Afe Babalola University, Nigeria. He has published widely in the fields of natural resources, energy, environmental law, and business and human rights. His recent book Environmental Law in Arab States (Oxford University Press, 2022) received the 2023 American Society of International Law (ASIL) Certificate of Merit for High Technical Craftsmanship and Utility to Practising Lawyers. Professor Olawuyi is an Independent Expert on the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, Vice-Chair of the International Law Association, and Chair of the Association of Environmental Law Lecturers in Middle East and North African Universities (ASSELLMU).
Louis de Fontenelle is Associate Professor (Maître de conférences HDR) in Public Law at the University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour (UPPA), France, and a member of the CNRS joint research unit TREE (Transitions énergétiques et environnementales). His research focuses on energy and climate law, sustainable mobility, subsurface law, and energy justice. He is Scientific Co-Director of Lamy Transition énergétique (2024/2025) and Co-Editor of Le droit des mobilités (2024). He also co-edited The Power of Energy Justice and the Social Contract (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). Professor de Fontenelle co-founded and directs the European Research Platform on Energy and Climate Law, and has coordinated or participated in several national and international research projects on hydrogen law, carbon storage, renewable energy communities, mobility, mining law, and energy justice.
Milton Fernando Montoya completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Dundee, UK, and holds a summa cum laude PhD in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid, a Master's in Energy Law (Spain), and a law degree from the Externado de Colombia University. A Partner at Holland & Knight, he also serves as Director of the Mining and Energy Law Institute at Externado de Colombia University and of the Energy Transition Observatory. He is President of the Latin American Mining Law Network, and sits on the boards of the Regional Centre for Energy Studies (CREE) and the Mining, Petroleum and Energy Bar Association (CAMPE). His affiliations include the Academic Advisory Group (AAG) of the Energy and Natural Resources Section (SEERIL) of the International Bar Association (IBA). Professor Montoya is Honorary Lecturer at the University of Dundee (Scotland), and guest professor at the University of Durham (England), the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, and the University of Almería (Spain).
José Juan González is Full Professor of Law at the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Azcapotzalco, Mexico, and Director of the Mexican Institute for Environmental Law Research. He holds an LLM in Economic Law from the Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico, and a PhD in Environmental Law from the University of Alicante, Spain. He is Chair of the Mexican Institute for Environmental Law Research and Director of the Mexican Environmental Law Journal. Professor González is a Level III fellow of the National Research System of the Mexican Council of Science and Technology. He is a member of the Governing Council of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law and the Academic Advisory Group (AAG) of the Section on Energy, Environment, Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL) of the International Bar Association (IBA). In 1999, he drafted the Environmental Act of Mexico City, which remains in force.
