The Renewable Energy Resources Act of 1980 or Renewable Energy Initiatives (REI) is legislation passed by the 96th U.S. Congress to incentivize the use of renewable energy resources. It was enacted with five other acts by the Energy Security Act of 1980.^[1]

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Renewable Energy Resources Act

Long title	Renewable Energy Resource Act of 1980
Enacted by	the 96th United States Congress
Legislative history
Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on June 30, 1980

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It sought to do this by mean of the following:^[2]

• Establish incentive for renewable energy resource use,
• To improve and coordinate the dissemination of information to the public with respect to renewable energy resources,
• To encourage the use of certain cost effective solar energy systems and conservation measures by the Federal Government,
• To establish a program for the promotion of local energy self-sufficiency,
• To broaden the existing program for accelerating the procurement and use of photovoltaic systems, and
• To provide further encourage for the development of small hydroelectric power projects.

"Renewable energy resource" in the REI legislation is any energy resource which has recently originated in the sun, including direct and indirect solar radiation and intermediate solar energy forms such as wind, ocean thermal gradients, ocean currents and waves, hydropower, photovoltaic

energy, products of photosynthetic processes, organic wastes, and others.^[3]