In the last two decades renewable energy (RE) generation has been an increased topic of discussion among legislators. The purpose of this Thesis is to gain an understanding of how political, socioeconomic, country-specific factors and policies interact to drive a country to invest in RE generation. Using a panel dataset from 2001-2014 this paper looks at variables that fall in all four of these categories to determine which variables are the most important and effective and influencing RE output. This paper finds that CO2 emissions, land area and energy imports are all significant influencers of RE generation. This paper, interestingly, finds that quota policies actually impede RE production.