As concerns of climate change and sustainable development grow, countries around the world – both developed and developing – have increased commitment to and investment in renewable energy deployment, drawing energy and electricity from solar, wind, water, biogas and other relatively clean technologies. While national governments, international development organizations, and bilateral donors have promoted a suite of policy approaches to boost renewable energy production, however, few studies examine whether these policies are equally effective across all country contexts. Do renewable energy policies tend to be equally effective in wealthy countries as in poor countries, or among those in between? While this question is interesting in its own right, the few scholars who have examined it have not accounted for the effect of millions of dollars in multilateral and donor assistance to boost renewable energy in less-developed countries. Has this aid increased renewable energy deployment in targeted countries in particular? In this paper, we use a fixed effects model to estimate the effect of formal energy policies – focusing on renewable portfolio standards, feed-in-tariffs, and renewable energy subsidies, among others – on renewable energy generation at the national level. In so doing, we assess the performance of multi- and bilateral aid funding for such renewable energy deployment. Methodologically, we use an original database of renewable energy policies covering each year from 1990 – 2010 for 137 countries across all income ranges as measured by annual Gross National Income (GNI). We split our countries into four quartiles: low-income, medium income, middle-high income, and high income. We then estimate the effects of various renewable energy policies on renewable generation, as well as the effects of international development assistance, participation in the CDM, political factors such as political freedom and the influence of the fossil fuel industry in each country, and electricity market factors such as growth in electricity consumption and fossil fuel endowments. We compare the similarities and differences in drivers of renewable energy generation across different GNI categories.