The Advanced Energy Economy Institute, AEE’s educational and charitable affiliate, commissioned a leading industry consultancy, PA Consulting Group, to interview CEOs and top executives of advanced energy companies, across a wide range of technologies and services, about how federal policies affect their businesses. The consultants interviewed companies big and small, established and start-up, technology focused and service-oriented.

They took an open-ended approach, asking the executives these fundamental questions:

• What are the primary business challenges faced by your firm?

• How does your business interface with federal policy?

• What changes to federal policy would you like to see occur?

Here’s what they heard back:

• Business leaders want stability and predictability in market structures.

• They want a level playing field with their competitors – with traditional energy, and with each other.

• They want government to support research across a wide range of technologies.

• They want subsidies that make new technologies more competitive to be limited in duration, and phased out in a gradual, predictable manner, not maintained forever or cut off after arbitrary deadlines.

• They want government policies crafted around broad problems, rather than pre-ordained solutions so that the market can identify the best ways forward.