The commercialization of emerging technologies for distributed generation, such as fuel cells, microturbines, and Stirling engines, is just beginning, but the regulatory infrastructure needed to support the installation of these technologies in, on, or alongside buildings is not yet in place. Because power generation has typically been regulated in the U.S. from within the utility industry, there are few provisions in existing standards, codes, and building construction regulations that address either traditional or emerging small-scale power generation technologies. Moreover, those who enforce the regulations have not historically dealt with such installations. Until appropriate technology-specific provisions are established, the path to market is likely to be interrupted by detours for costly site-specific testing, evaluation, and approvals—a process that could create a rat's nest of individual rulings, given that there are more than 40,000 independent units of local government in the U.S. (DE-3; June 1998; 38 pages)