China, India, and South Africa have recognized the importance of renewable electricity for their future development. In this paper, we investigate the experience of the three countries in applying generation-based policies to promote renewable electricity. We show that they have developed approaches that deviate from what the European experience suggests as successful. With a special focus on feed-in tariffs and auction-based tariffs, our comparison highlights the importance of policy choice and policy design specifications in meeting specific objectives. All three emerging economies face the necessity to promote electricity from renewable energies while keeping electricity prices low. Hence, they experiment with policies and design options, and arrive at country specific solutions. Despite applying different policy instruments and designs that put strong emphasis on low cost solutions, all three. countries seem able to reach their ambitious deployment targets. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.