Installing a distributed energy system (DES) can help reduce the energy distribution losses and allow usage of locally available renewable resources. DES can combine different sectors, such as electricity, cooling, and heating, using technologies such as cogeneration, heat pumps, absorption chillers, etc. The rising concerns about energy independence, global warming, and climate change, coupled with the demand to provide electricity to remote populations, has encouraged a change in thinking toward energy systems. Consequently, the focus is directed towards developing power plants located close to end-users and designing plans in accordance with local needs and resources [1]. The DES concept involves both the deployment of generation plants (decentralized generation) and the integrating of various energy sources [2]. The distributed production of DES has many benefits: economic (e.g., local resource development), technical (e.g., system flexibility), and social (e.g., self-sufficient communities). With the rise of interest in DES, a variety of aggregation solutions are being developed in the scientific community. The following concepts are the prominent ones. However, it is important to note that the terminology is still developing and uncertain, and in some cases, it is used indistinctly.

In the past decade, the U.S took various actions to encourage the development of Combined Heating & Power (CHP) and renewable energy utilization. According to the White Paper on CHP in a Clean Energy Standard from 2011, the CHP share of the U.S electric power is expected to increase by 11% and represent 20% of the electricity generated by 2030 [3]. Furthermore, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency have decided to replace the old equipment in the industrial sector with more clean and efficacious distributed energy equipment [4]. In the past two decades, the US established several initiatives to reduce the prices of natural gas and to improve the development of clean energy, and several related policies have been issued. For example, in 2011, the Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future was issued [5]. The plan aims to reduce the dependence on oil by exploiting cleaner alternative energy. Subsequently, the Clean Power Plan was published in 2015 to promote renewable energy power [6].

Overall, renewable energy represented 22.1% of the energy consumed in the European Union (EU) in 2020 [7]. In this section, we review the steps taken by some of the governments in the last decade which have enabled the EU to reach the percentage stated above, as well as goals for the next decades and further measures that are planned to be taken.

Germany has been determined to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and has taken several measures in that direction. In 2012, the government set a legally binding development target that by 2025, the electricity generated by CHP will account for 25% of the total generation [8]. This commitment is bound by a law named Combined Heat and Power, which also states that the electricity from CHP will receive a higher subsidy and will become a higher priority. In addition, a series of policies have been released, such as the Law on Renewable Energies from 2012, which specifies that biomass-based power plants should assist the development of the CHP deployment and its related policies mentioned above. In 2015, Germany declared that nuclear power would gradually be removed by 2022, facilitating the deployment of CHP. These policies place Germany as the country with the largest segment of the CHP market among EU members. Furthermore, the government revised the Law on Renewable Energies again in 2016, and suggested new goals: by 2030, the electricity generated by renewable energy will account for 50% of the total generation, and this will be over 80% by 2050.

The British government has embraced several cost-sharing strategies aimed at decreasing the high cost of PV, such as allocating the cost of photovoltaic generation to fossil fuel-based energy producers through taxes and financial subsidies. Furthermore, the British government has urged energy producers to cut carbon emissions and to save energy. For instance, an enterprise that improves its primary energy saving ratio to a particular value would be eligible for government credit as well as VAT on the installation cost of the equipment. By 2013, the installed capacity of CHP in Britain was about 420,104 kW, accounting for 10% of the total electrical output [12]. While in 2016, 45% of the total electricity was generated by natural gas power plants, and the thermal power plant was slated to be phased out by 2025 [13].

China has had the world’s largest PV market share since 2013. As the price of the PV module falls, the government keeps increasing the amount of PV capacity installed, along with providing incentive policies such as feed-in tariffs (FITs) and subsidies. Until 2016, large-scale PV power stations were the most dominant in the PV market in China [14].

Since 2016, distributed PV energy developed very quickly, and it is now one of the foundations of China’s energy transition. However, considering the Chinese market, distributed energy still has a major potential to develop. China has been promoting policies favoring distributed energy in the past decade, and the government keeps adding new policies to support it and create a promising environment for distributed energy to continue to develop and grow.

2. Education

2.1. Israel

2.2. Publicity and Raising Awareness