Subsidies - in the form of grants of land or cash, low-interest loans, tax preferences, price floors or premiums, mandatory purchase regimes or other support - may be used to address market failures that prevent the growth of infant industries in the new markets discussed above. They may also be used, as they are in the case of renewable energy technologies, to level the playing field vis-S-vis competing conventional goods, which are not taxed for their full environmental damage, and which on the contrary are often subsidised. As noted above, they may help firms in a new and dynamic sector overcome significant market failures and reach a point of global competitiveness.