Abstract
The conflicts and potential trade-offs between renewable energy development and nature protection are evident in policies aimed at promoting windpower, particularly in nature areas under high pressure from human activities. However, surprisingly little is known about the influence of political steering on windpower licensing practices. This article examines how political steering has affected the weight accorded to environmental considerations in the licensing practices of the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). We find that the NVE enjoys significant discretion in interpreting and implementing political decisions, and that the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (OED) has not provided clear steering signals regarding nature protection. Political pressures for expanded renewable energy production are reflected in the significant attention paid to economic and technical considerations in the licensing process. We conclude that ministerial steering signals and the NVE’s technocratic culture have pushed in the same direction: greater development of windpower, at the expense of transparent and predictable consideration for nature concerns.
Highlights
The conflict and potential trade-offs between renewable energy development and nature protection are evident in policies aimed at promoting windpower
We find that the NVE enjoys significant discretion in interpreting and implementing political decisions, and that the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (OED) has not provided clear steering signals regarding nature protection
We find that lack of political steering as to how the NVE should handle the licensing process helps to explain the development of informal NVE practices, which accord a special role to host municipalities, project developers, and landowners in the process [2]
Summary
The conflict and potential trade-offs between renewable energy development and nature protection are evident in policies aimed at promoting windpower. The conflicts between nature protection and climate concerns have taken centre stage in Norwegian windpower discussions, with calls for more transparent and predicable licensing practices related to envi ronmental concerns These factors make Norway an excellent case for analysing political steering and licensing practices, as it provides an opportunity to study a centralized licensing system that could be ex pected to be sensitive to political steering signals. We draw on implementation theory to investigate how political steering signals – ministry letters of allocation to its subsidiary agencies, renewables goals and appeals processes – influence licensing practices at the NVE Such inputs may encounter resistance from established iden tities and practices, standard operating procedures, and the like. We pay particular attention to political signals regarding nature protection and Energy Research & Social Science 74 (2021) 101963 changes in the weight accorded by the NVE to nature protection con cerns in licensing decisions, because such political signals may conflict with established windpower development practices
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