Comparing Wind Development Policies in Europe, Asia and America

This paper presents an overview of the regulatory framework for wind energy in European Union Member States. The analysis covers three main aspects of regulatory framework: support schemes, electrical grid issues and potential barriers for wind power deployment. The aim is not just to provide an updated picture of current (early-2015) regulatory framework, but also to analyse the past evolution and trends (in order to achieve the targets of renewable energy share set for 2020). Each country implements a specific regulatory framework driven by several factors: their own renewable energy targets, local availability of renewable resources, energy mix structure, existing infrastructures as well as other factors such as public perception or geographical distribution of electricity generation and consumption points. The results presented in this paper show a trend for increasing the market exposure of wind generators; feed-in premiums and competitive bidding procedures to establish the support level are gaining prominence in the last few years. In relation to grid issues, it is a common practice that new wind generators only bear the grid extension costs to the closest connection point; priority or guaranteed access is granted in most Member States and wind generators are usually not demanded to meet balancing requirements (this is expected to change in the next few years following the new guidelines provided by the European Commission). The analysis of potential barriers for wind energy deployment shows that the stability of regulatory framework is one of the most important concerns for investors. Finally, actual deployment over the last few years has been linked with evolution of regulatory frameworks. This analysis shows that some Member States have shown a strong commitment supporting wind energy; however, in other countries the support has not been enough to stimulate the desired level of investment.

Although China and the EU differ vastly in their preconditions for environmental governance and investment, both have expanded their capacity for wind-power generation greatly over the past decade. The EU member-states have generally been regarded as modern and prosperous, with high and stable energy consumption and large, high-tech wind industries. China, in contrast, is an emerging economy under authoritarian rule, with rapidly-increasing energy consumption and comparatively little domestic R&D in wind turbine technology. What can explain the fast development of wind-power production capacity in the EU and in China, despite the very different political systems and basic preconditions? Applying the method of ‘most-different systems design’, this paper shows how, in both regions, large-scale investment in wind power has come about through a specific set of political motivations. These include strong governmental support policies based on similar main aims, like security of energy supply, creating future-oriented industries and employment, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution. Combined these three factors together, broadly perceived might also explain political motivations driving rapid investment in new renewable energy sources elsewhere.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010

With the increasing negative effects of fossil fuel combustion on the environment in addition to limited stock of fossil fuel have forced many countries to inquire into and change to environmentally friendly alternatives that are renewable to sustain the increasing energy demand. Energy policy plays a vital role to mitigate the impacts of global warming and crisis of energy availability. This paper explores the wind energy industry from the point of view of the wind energy policy. It is noticed that energy policy could help increasing wind power generation as well as stimulating the energy industry. It may be stated that without specific energy policy, a country would not be able to solve the acute problems like reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission, scarcity of energy, etc. This paper discussed the existing successful energy policies for few selected countries. Based on literatures, it has been found that FIT, RPS, incentives, pricing law and Quota system are the most useful energy policies practiced by many countries around the world. Then, status of wind energy policy for Malaysia was investigated and compared with few selected countries around the world.

Science and Public Policy, 2015

Wind power is increasingly vital for meeting energy challenges and mitigating global climate change and is therefore an important part of renewable energy portfolios in many countries. Given the key and evolving roles of European and Asian countries in driving this sector, this article focuses on two sets of key questions: first, do wind power innovation paths differ between Europe and Asia? If so, how do they differ? Second, do innovation paths reflect different initial conditions in Europe and Asia? Can we expect divergence in the future? We find that although national paths are shaped by a range of national characteristics and therefore differ along key dimensions, the increasing roles of cross-national firm interactions amplify tendencies towards global convergence. These patterns of divergence and convergence can potentially enhance the contribution of wind power to the low-carbon transition but also have implications for the competitive dynamics of the wind power industry.

Policy Research Working Papers, 2009

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010

stat.unipg.it

China and India represent two exemplary cases to address the contentious compromise between two needs: on the one side that of economic development, and on the other side that of coping with climate change concerns. Wind energy is the focus of this paper, where the aim is to investigate how the two countries have supported this new technology to complement their efforts for securing energy needs. The comparative analysis is built upon a deep investigation of the institutional and market structure of the wind market in China and India in light of their historical evolution. Despite one relevant similarity that national wind energy markets have been fundamentally domestic-driven, important differences emerge as to the relation between the public and private involvement.

2008

In this study, the prospects of wind power at the global level are reviewed. Existing studies indicate that the earth's wind energy supply potential significantly exceeds global energy demand. Yet, only 1% of the global electricity demand is currently derived from wind power despite 40% annual growth in wind generating capacity over the last 25 years. More than 98% of total current wind power capacity is installed in the developed countries plus China and India. Existing studies estimate that wind power could supply 7% to 34% of global electricity needs by 2050. Wind power faces a large number of technical, financial, institutional, market and other barriers. To overcome these, many countries have employed various policy instruments, including capital subsidies, tax incentives, tradable energy certificates, feed-in tariffs, grid access guarantees and mandatory standards. Besides these policies, climate change mitigation initiatives resulting from the Kyoto Protocol (e.g., CO2-em...