Wind Power Policy Research Articles

Swedish wind power expansion: Conflicting responsibilities between state and municipalities

Sweden has experienced two decades of wind power expansion and enters a broad diffusion phase. In this study the aim is to deepen the knowledge of the municipal role in this phase in relation to national wind power policy. Local public officials and politicians was interviewed in fourteen Swedish municipalities. The results show that municipal representatives experience great uncertainty about the responsibilities and incentives they have in the energy transition – responsibilities that are difficult to interpret but also difficult to realize in practice. In conclusion, unclear State policy, increased social resistance, lacking municipal capabilities, and a market-driven planning regime adds a burden of incongruous responsibility on municipalities, which risks enforcing uncertainties in the transition of the national energy system. The study brings socio-technical insight to the global expansion of renewable energy within decentralized political systems.

Institutional Performance and Carbon Reduction Effect of High-Quality Development of New Energy: China’s Experience and Policy Implication

Based on the policy text from 1999 to 2022, this paper quantitatively analyzes photovoltaic power, wind power and new energy policies in mainland China by keyword capture and policy strength and establishes a spatial Durbin model to study the carbon reduction effects. The results show the following: (1) The development of new energy is primarily project-based and concentrated in rural areas. (2) Financial support is a double-edged sword. (3) After the implementation of the Renewable Energy Law in 2015, the change trend in policy quantity, total policy intensity, and average policy intensity is generally consistent. (4) The increase in the strength of new energy policies has effectively reduced the intensity of provincial carbon dioxide emissions. (5) New energy policies introduced in a single region are less effective in reducing carbon emissions than joint regional regulation. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the quality and coordination of new energy policies through the effective convergence of policies and regular evaluations to enhance the positive guidance of the policies. Policy measures for new energy are refined in three areas: improving the amount and quality of new energy policies, strengthening new energy policies and establishing cooperation mechanisms for the cross-regional consumption of new energy.

Exploring policy support for wind power development from a balancing perspective - A study of dynamic strategies based on evolutionary game

Wind power, as a clean energy source, is becoming increasingly significant in China's energy reorganization. Policy is one of the main tools to promote the development of wind power, and in the process of realizing the goal of Peak Carbon and Carbon Neutral, the lagging aspect of policy has become a barrier to the growth of wind power, making research into wind power policy a popular topic. This study aims to classify the characteristics of China's wind power policies and use the SWOT model to analyze their classification, test the impact of the policies by using T-sample and text data, select typical policies, establish the evolution game model of the two sides, and analyze the stability and influencing factors. Finally, we reflect on and summarize the present policies enacted in China in the areas of wind power demand response and green financial system, and provide pertinent recommendations.

Policy, Innovation, and Total Factor Productivity of the Chinese Wind Power Industry: Does Dynamic Capability Matter?

Due to the environmental and economic advantages, wind power has been highly valued by the Chinese government in the energy transformation process. The Chinese government has promulgated a series of wind power policies, but their impacts on innovation and subsequent total factor productivity (TFP) are still not clear. Meanwhile, the role of dynamic capability seems to have been ignored. This study systematically evaluates the impact of policy on the innovation and subsequent TFP of the Chinese wind power industry. Then, we distinguish between integration capability and reconfiguration capability and elucidate their moderating effects on the relationship between policy and innovation. The empirical results indicate that policy and TFP of the Chinese wind power industry are positively correlated. Innovation plays a partial mediating role in the above relationship. Besides, both integration capability and reconfiguration capability significantly enhance the positive impact of policy on innovation.

Offshore Wind Power Policy in The U.S. And China: Comparison And Analysis

This paper compares and analyzes different offshore wind power policies between two countries, follows the timeline for the development phase, and explores deep reasons for framework differences in three aspects (Policy Environment, Financial Incentives, and Permit Processes). The key findings are that policy is the primary driver to boost offshore wind energy. A stable policy environment with long-term goals could revise developments from experience, support SOEs to raise capital and develop experiments for provincial and local governments and increase international collaborations. Differentiating FITs payments contribute to renewable electricity generation, promote technology price decreases, and ensure market certainty. Streamlined permitting accelerates speed construction and creates an energy innovation system with multiple brands and technologies. In the end, suggestions are given separately to help China and US further develop the offshore wind power industry.

Impacts of local governments' wind power policy and preferences on wind power development: an empirical analysis of China

Impacts of local governments' wind power policy and preferences on wind power development: an empirical analysis of China

Offshore wind power policies and green total factor productivity: empirical evidence from coastal China

IntroductionGreen and high-quality development requires the transformation and upgrading the energy structure. As a clean and efficient new energy, the development of offshore wind power is related to the achievement of green development and the realization of the dual carbon goals.MethodsBased on the perspective of green total factor production, this study aims to explore the impact of offshore wind power policies (OWPPs) on green and high-quality development. Taking 11 coastal areas of China from 2004 to 2020 as samples, this paper empirically tested the impact of OWPPs on green total factor productivity (GTFP) by using propensity score matching difference-in-differences method (PSM-DID).Results and discussionThe results show that OWPPs have a significant positive impact on GTFP. The robustness test further verifies the results, and the provincial difference is significant. By stimulating technological innovation and reducing energy intensity, OWPPs have improved GTFP, but increasing marketization level is a long way off.

A wind of change in Norway: Explaining shifts in municipal stances on wind power by policy feedback and energy justice

Despite the growing need for renewable electricity, wind power development has not proceeded smoothly. This study examines the shifting stances on wind power development in Norwegian municipalities. By developing and applying a combined policy feedback and energy justice framework, we investigate how experiences from earlier wind power policies have affected the positions of municipal councils. Through a systematic text analysis of municipal council responses to a national consultation on the siting of wind power installations, combined with data from interviews in selected municipalities, we show how considerations of distributional, procedural and recognition justice, stemming from experiences with wind power policies and developments, have moulded the shift in municipal council stances. Our analysis makes clear the essential role of perceptions of justice in connection with strategies for raising acceptance of wind power development as part of the ongoing energy transition.

Government intervention and technological innovation in the wind power industry in China: The role of industrial environmental turbulence

Wind power is accelerating the transformation of China’s energy market from a primary to a renewable energy-dominated market. The Chinese government has engaged in many supportive and regulatory interventions to guide and stimulate wind power enterprises to simultaneously improve existing technologies and develop new solutions. However, the effectiveness of policies and the potential interactions among them have not been empirically assessed. Firms in emerging economies typically survive and develop in turbulent environments. How such an environment affects the effectiveness of government intervention remains a black box. This study aimed to investigate the impact of wind power policies and their mix on exploitative and exploratory innovations in China, along with the moderating role of environmental turbulence. Using data on listed companies in the Chinese wind power industry from 2006 to 2020 and two-way fixed effects regressions, this study assesses and compares the impacts of different policy categories and their mix on exploitative and exploratory innovations. We also distinguish between market and technological turbulence, and clarify the moderating effect of environmental turbulence. In addition, this study ensures the robustness of the empirical results by altering the dependent variables and eliminating the interference of endogeneity using the IV-2SLS method. The results indicate that supportive and regulatory policies and their mix facilitate exploitative and exploratory innovations. Market turbulence enhances the relationship between policies and their mix and exploitative innovation, whereas technological turbulence enhances the relationship between policies and their mix and exploratory innovation. This is one of the first studies to evaluate the impacts of policies and their mix on the exploitative and exploratory innovations of renewable energy sectors in emerging economies, advancing the understanding of innovation growth in emerging economies and enriching research on renewable energy policies. Additionally, this study links environmental turbulence to government intervention, and thus contributes to the identification of policy effectiveness boundaries.

Wind power policies in China: Development themes, evaluation, and recommendations

AbstractThe scale of wind power generation in China is increasing, and China has become the largest producer of wind power in the world. This is mainly due to government policy support, providing investors with sufficient incentive to invest. With the saturation of the market, the development of the wind power industry has encountered a bottleneck. Strengthening the market facilities will be the focus of the development of the wind power industry in China in the future. We collected wind power policies in China in the past 20 years, used a latent Dirichlet allocation theme model to find themes in the process of wind power policy continuation, and then constructed the policy modeling consistency index model to quantitatively evaluate the effects of these policies. Finally, we discuss the changes needed for China's wind power policy in the future. We suggest that to achieve the market‐oriented construction goal of wind power in China, future policy needs to strengthen the importance of market allocation, optimize the business environment, and improve the efficiency of resource utilization.

Impacts of wind power policies on the total factor productivity of the Chinese wind power industry

Wind power has been treated as a strategic choice to decarbonize the Chinese electricity market, so the Chinese government has introduced various policies to improve the wind power industry's total factor productivity (TFP). However, the impacts of policies and their mixes on TFP are still unclear. In addition, the Chinese wind power industry is supervised and regulated by several agencies, so assessing and comparing the effectiveness of policies from different agencies is also an urgent task. This study evaluates the impacts of different categories of policies and their mixes on the TFP of the Chinese wind power industry based on micro-data from the listed Chinese wind power enterprises from 2006 to 2020. The heterogeneity in policy effectiveness is probed with respect to the policy-issuing agencies. The empirical results indicate that economic, regulatory, and soft policies and their mixes significantly facilitate the TFP. Further analysis suggests that the policies of the National People's Congress and the State Council have no significant effect, while the policies of the State Council's departments can significantly improve the TFP of the wind power industry in China.

Policy mix or policy mess? Impacts of policies on the productive efficiency of the Chinese wind power industry

Grand societal challenges call for a sustainability transition away from a fossil-based society toward a low-carbon society. Wind power is highly valued in China, owing to its strong environmental benefits and abundant reserves. Although accelerating the development of wind power industry is near the top of the agenda of the Chinese government, the impact of policies and their mixes on the productive efficiency of the wind power industry is still unclear. In this study, the productive efficiency of the Chinese wind power industry is systematically evaluated using microdata of 119 listed enterprises from 2006 to 2019. The effects of wind power policies and their mixes on the productive efficiency are then elucidated. The empirical results imply that the overall productive efficiency of the Chinese wind power industry is relatively high but that it fluctuated greatly between 2006 and 2019. Moreover, the effects of Chinese wind power policies and their mixes on productive efficiency are ambiguous. Both economic policy (EP) and regulatory policy (RP) hinder productive efficiency; only soft policy (SP) has a significant positive effect. Furthermore, the policy mixes of EP and RP, EP and SP, and RP and SP have no significant impact, but the policy mix of EP, RP, and SP significantly inhibits the productive efficiency of the Chinese wind power industry, indicating conflictive effects and confusion in the policy mix.

Review of recent offshore wind power strategy in Taiwan: Onshore wind power comparison

Since 2016, Taiwan has pursued an agenda of energy transition and a nuclear-free homeland by 2025, with an increase in renewable energy from 5% in 2016 to 20% in 2025. Furthermore, Taiwan has significantly accelerated its offshore wind power (WP) targets since (i.e., 5.7 GW by 2025) from two 4-MW turbines in mid-2016. The Taiwanese government set the highest feed-in tariff worldwide to attract the attention of large global renewable developers. The criterion for a high feed-in tariff is a local content requirement. If successful, Taiwan would become the third largest offshore WP country in terms of installation capacity and would have achieved this the fastest, despite the current low industry capability for both onshore and offshore WP. This study provides updated information on offshore WP policy development in Taiwan, focusing on the world's first offshore WP selection and local content requirement regime in 2018. Moreover, this study compares the evolution of research development, demonstration, and commercialisation of onshore and offshore WP, identifying the lessons and challenges in realising such an ambitious plan. • Updated overview of onshore and offshore wind power development in Taiwan. • Onshore/offshore wind power development from research to commercialisation. • Potential challenges to become the third largest offshore wind power country. • Unbiased view of the wind power landscape in Taiwan. • Information for developers interested in Taiwan's high feed-in tariff.

How Policies Guide and Promoted Wind Power to Market Transactions in China during the 2010s

Chinese wind power policies have productively promoted the development of wind power and also promoted the process of wind power participation in electricity market transactions. However, with policy emphasis on investment and neglect of utilization, there have been some difficulties in the development of Chinese wind power. To highlight the guiding role of policy and improve the wind power policy system, an analysis of Chinese wind power policies is conducted in this paper. First, aiming at the main components of wind power chain, including wind power construction, grid connection, transmission, and sales, a comprehensive and systematic frame of Chinese wind power policy system is proposed from the three aspects of development planning, administrative management and market transactions. Second, the indicator system of Chinese wind power development effectiveness is extracted, including installed capacity, power generation, power utilization hours, carbon emission reduction, investment, on-grid power price, wind curtailment rate, etc., and the effectiveness of policy implementation is verified. Third, new policy recommendations are proposed from parts of transmission, consumption, and market, for the development of Chinese wind power industry in the 14th Five-Year Plan period and the goal to reach the crest value of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. In this paper, advice to supplement and improve the Chinese wind power policy system is provided, which may it promote better development of Chinese wind power in the following decade from the policy point of view.

What shapes Norwegian wind power policy? Analysing the constructing forces of policymaking and emerging questions of energy justice

This paper employs an assemblage theoretical approach to analyse how Norwegian land-based wind power policies are constructed over time and what forces dominate and resist wind power policy development. The entanglement of policies, technology deployment and (lack of) social acceptance emphasizes the need to critically question what and who influence the construction of energy transition policies and how and what concerns are left out, especially in relation to the tenets of energy justice. We find that wind power policies are primarily influenced by energy authorities, developers and interest organizations, furthering arguments of climate concerns, energy security and economic opportunity. The emerging voices of local governments, environmental organizations and concerned citizens claim new political engagement related to valuations of (local) environmental, distributional and procedural justice and the recognition of alternative future energy imaginaries. The increase in conflicts and public debates has challenged national politicians to play a more active role in wind power policy making, which entails the reconsideration of wind power as an energy policy and critically judging what, for whom and how wind power should contribute to local, national and global energy transitions.

Can wind power policies effectively improve the productive efficiency of Chinese wind power industry?

ABSTRACT Due to the advantages of technical maturity, economic benefits and development potential, wind power is highly expected by China. In order to accelerate the development of wind power industry (WPI), the Chinese government has formulated a variety of preferential policies. Yet can policies effectively improve the productive efficiency of Chinese WPI has not been fully answered so far. Based on the micro-data of Chinese wind power listed enterprises from 2006 to 2019, this paper assesses the productive efficiency of enterprises in different links of wind power industry chain (WPIC) with DEA model. And then the fixed effect regression model is employed to identify the effect of policy on productive efficiency. The results show that, in the sample period, the overall productive efficiency of WPI is relatively low. The productive efficiency of upstream enterprises is the highest (19.8%), while that of downstream enterprises is the lowest (12.9%). And productive efficiency of midstream enterprises is 15.8%. Besides, the economic policy significantly inhibits the productive efficiency of WPI. The soft policy is an effective macro-control measure to improve the productive efficiency. And the effect of regulatory policy is time-dependent. Then the suggestions are provided.

Study on the direct and indirect effectiveness of wind power policy: Empirical evidence from 30 provinces in China

As a renewable energy, wind energy plays a momentous role in improving energy structure and maintaining energy strategic security. Based on the provincial level panel data, this paper not only explores the direct effect of price-oriented policy (POP) and quantity-oriented policy (QOP) on newly installed wind power capacity (NI), but also investigates the indirect impact paths and mechanisms through learning-by-researching (LBS) and learning-by-doing (LBD). Main results are as follows: (1) From the national perspective, it is observed that the two policies can directly promote the expansion of wind power, and POP is better than QOP. (2) From the perspective of regional heterogeneity, POP plays a significant direct role in promoting the wind power growth in the eastern, central and western regions, and QOP has achieved a long-term success in the eastern region, but fails in the central and western regions in the long run. (3) From the perspective of resource endowment heterogeneity, QOP plays a better direct role than POP in areas with rich wind resources, but the opposite is true that in the areas with relatively poor wind resources. Based on the research results, several constructive suggestions are put forward.

Assessing wind energy development in Uganda: Opportunities and challenges

In this paper, we utilize a systematic review to assess opportunities and challenges in wind energy development in Uganda. Apart from being an environmentally friendly and renewable energy resource, development of wind energy could boosts economic growth and creates jobs. For Uganda, rising energy demand, need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing electricity access to rural areas, emerge as rational opportunities to invest in wind energy. The main obstacles to wind energy development in Uganda are insufficient wind resource data, high initial investment cost, inadequate research and development, weak infrastructure, and unsupportive policies. For policy, comprehensive wind resource assessment, energy infrastructure investment, financial de-risking, capacity building, and deliberate wind power policy incentives could accelerate wind energy development and consequently contribute to the country’s energy security.

Combining the Institutional Resource Regime (IRR) framework with the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) for a better understanding of environmental governance processes: The case of Swiss wind power policy

This article demonstrates the analytical added value of combining the Institutional Resource Regime (IRR) approach with the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). To this end, we use the example of Swiss wind power policy and demonstrate the necessity of combining the two theoretical frameworks so as to understand why a more supportive policy regime (market incentives, clearer environmental regulations, inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms) for Swiss wind power during the 2000s and 2010s, did not lead to an increase in the number of wind turbines in Switzerland. In order to evaluate the explanatory capacity of such a theoretical combination, we analyze and compare two cases of wind power policy implementation: the successful case of Mont-Crosin and the failure of Tramelan. More concretely, we first analyze each of the cases through the institutional lenses of the IRR framework. After assessing IRR explanatory capacities and shortcomings, we then test the explanatory added value of the ACF and demonstrate that policy beliefs and advocacy coalitions are central explanatory factors of wind power project siting success or failure. We conclude by discussing the theoretical potential of combining the two frameworks in a future research agenda.

The Development of Wind Power Under the Low-Carbon Constraints of Thermal Power in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region

Thermal power has consumed a lot of coal, which causes serious air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Previous studies on low-carbon development often separated the three regions, ignoring the coordinated development relationships in the regions. Under the low-carbon development constrictions of thermal power, this paper studied the development of wind power. Firstly, from the integration development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the changes in industrial structure and the total electricity consumption were predicted. Secondly, a comprehensive analysis of the low-carbon development policy for these regions, in accordance with the analytical results, controls the development of thermal power. Finally, a system dynamics model is used to analyse the wind power development from 2018 to 2025 under the influence of development on purchased electricity, the development of thermal and wind power policy. The study found that under the existing policies the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region can achieve the goal of installed wind power capacity in the “13th Five-Year Plan for Electrical Power Development”. And from 2020 to 2025, the installed capacity of wind power significantly increases. Based on sensitivity analysis for wind power development, installed wind power capacity is the most sensitive to the wind power feed-in tariff, followed by thermal power generation capacity and then purchased electricity. To prevent wind power growing too fast, this paper suggests reducing the feed-in tariff of wind power during the “14th Five-Year Plan”.