Re-regulating renewable energy: geoeconomics and the regulation of wind and solar power in Brazil

The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy has increasingly been interpreted through the lens of a “geoeconomic turn,” characterized by intensified state intervention and strategic competition in sensitive markets. Within international economic law and energy law, this development is often described as a rupture with the liberalization paradigm that structured renewable energy governance during the globalization era. This thesis revisits that interpretation by examining how wind and solar power value chains are being re-regulated in the context of the geoeconomic turn, using Brazil as a case study. The research adopts a qualitative legal-institutional methodology combined with a global value chain approach to analyze regulatory instruments deployed across three strategic segments: infrastructure and system oversight, equipment and technological capacity, and critical minerals. The study is limited to domestic-oriented state interventions and classifies regulatory measures according to geoeconomic categories, including inward and outward measures. The central hypothesis argues that the so-called geoeconomic turn does not constitute a structural rupture with liberal governance, but rather a juridical and regulatory reconfiguration of practices already embedded in the liberalization era. Brazil’s reregulation of wind and solar power value chains reveals a hybrid regulatory configuration that preserves market-oriented structures while expanding strategic legal intervention. The thesis contributes to international economic law scholarship by demonstrating how emerging economies participate in reshaping the regulatory architecture of renewable energy without abandoning its liberal foundations.