To what extent does wind power deployment affect vested interests? A case study of the Northeast China Grid

China's wind power is in an embarrassing state. Along with its dramatic development since 2005, its curtailment ratio has been rising. Although this could be attributed to both physical and institutional factors, it is the institutional obstacles, mainly resulting from the adjustment difficulties of interests distribution, that have exercised a greater impact. The stakeholders relating to wind power integration are thermal power companies, grid companies and local governments. The extent to which wind power deployment affects these vested interests determines the core institutional obstacles to be addressed. Mainly based on quantitative and case analyses, we argue that currently wind deployment in China has a little impact on the interests of thermal companies, moderate impact on the interests of grid companies and great impact on local governments. We recommend that it is crucial to elevate the role of environmental protection and renewable energy increase while de-emphasize the role of economic growth in the evaluation of local governments’ performance, as well as provide incentives for grid companies to attend more to their social responsibilities rather than their scale expansion and revenue growth.     

Wind power and community benefits: Challenges and opportunities

A challenge relating to the development of renewable energy in the UK concerns how large companies can foster positive relationships with local communities. The concepts of ‘trust’ and ‘fairness’ are central to debates around proposed renewable energy developments, however, these concepts are complex, ambiguous and interrelated. In the UK the provision of community benefits stemming from the development of renewable energy projects remains a voluntary activity. This paper presents the findings of a case study of one wind power development and how community benefits associated with this were perceived by the local community throughout various stages of the case study (notably during planning, construction and operation). The case study highlights the challenging nature of community benefits from wind power developments. Important decisions regarding who the relevant local community is or what form community benefits should take present opportunities for disagreement between conflicting interests. It is argued that institutionalised guidance would serve a number of worthwhile purposes. Firstly, they would provide greater clarity. Secondly, they would give developers greater confidence to discuss the community benefits package in the early planning stages, and thirdly, they would reduce the likelihood of community benefits being perceived as bribes.     

Explaining the diversity of motivations behind community renewable energy

Community-based renewable energy initiatives may be important actors in the transition toward low-carbon energy systems. In turn, stimulating investments in renewable energy production at the community level requires a better understanding of investors' motives. This paper aims to study the heterogeneity of motivations that drive individuals to participate in community renewable energy projects and the underlying explanatory factors behind this, as well as the implications for their level of engagement in initiatives. Based on quantitative data from an original survey conducted with two renewable energy cooperatives in Flanders, the statistical analysis shows that cooperative members should not be considered as one homogeneous group. Several categories of members with different motives and levels of engagement can be distinguished. This heterogeneity is explained by contrasts in terms of institutional settings, spatial patterns and attitudes to the diffusion of institutional innovations. Regarding policy implications, the findings suggest that this heterogeneity should be taken into account in designing more effective supporting policies to stimulate investments at the community level. The activation of social norms is also shown to be a promising mechanism for triggering investment decisions, although the implications of its interplay with economic incentives should be further explored.     

Advanced mechanisms for the promotion of renewable energy—Models for the future evolution of the German Renewable Energy Act

The German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) has been very successful in promoting the deployment of renewable electricity technologies in Germany. The increasing share of EEG power in the generation portfolio, increasing amounts of fluctuating power generation, and the growing European integration of power markets governed by competition calls for a re-design of the EEG. In particular, a more efficient system integration and commercial integration of the EEG power is needed to, e.g. better matching feed-in to demand and avoiding stress on electricity grids. This article describes three different options to improve the EEG by providing appropriate incentives and more flexibility to the promotion mechanism and the quantitative compensation scheme without jeopardising the fast deployment of renewable energy technologies. In the “Retailer Model”, it becomes the responsibility of the end-use retailers to adapt the EEG power to the actual demand of their respective customers. The “Market Mediator Model” establishes an independent market mediator responsible to market the renewable electricity. This model is the primary choice when new market entrants are regarded as crucial for the better integration of renewable energy and enhanced competition. The “Optional Bonus Model” relies more on functioning markets since power plant operators can alternatively choose to market the generated electricity themselves with a premium on top of the market price instead of a fixed price.     

A comparative analysis of business structures suitable for farmer-owned wind power projects in the United States

For years, farmers in the United States have looked with envy on their European counterparts’ ability to profitably farm the wind through ownership of distributed, utility-scale wind projects. Only within the past few years, however, has farmer- or community-owned wind power development become a reality in the United States. The primary hurdle to this type of development in the United States has been devising and implementing suitable business and legal structures that enable such projects to take advantage of tax-based federal incentives for wind power. This article discusses the limitations of such incentives in supporting farmer- or community-owned wind projects, describes four ownership structures that potentially overcome such limitations, and finally conducts comparative financial analysis on those four structures, using as an example a hypothetical 1.5 MW farmer-owned project located in the state of Oregon. We find that material differences in the competitiveness of each structure do exist, but that choosing the best structure for a given project will largely depend on the conditions at hand; e.g., the ability of the farmer(s) to utilize tax credits, preference for individual versus “cooperative” ownership, and the state and utility service territory in which the project will be located.     

Preliminary evaluation of the Section 1603 treasury grant program for renewable power projects in the United States

This article evaluates the first year of the Section 1603 Treasury cash grant program, which enables renewable power projects in the US to elect cash grants in lieu of the federal tax credits that are otherwise available. To date, the program has been heavily subscribed, particularly by wind power projects, which had received 86% of the nearly $2.6 billion in grants that had been disbursed as of March 1, 2010. As of that date, 6.2 GW of the 10 GW of new wind capacity installed in the US in 2009 had applied for grants in lieu of production tax credits. Roughly 2.4 GW of this wind capacity may not have otherwise been built in 2009 in the absence of the grant program; this 2.4 GW may have supported approximately 51,600 short-term full-time-equivalent (FTE) gross job-years in the US during the construction phase of these wind projects, and 3860 long-term FTE gross jobs during the operational phase. The program’s popularity stems from the significant economic value that it provides to renewable power projects, relative to the otherwise available tax credits. Although grants reward investment rather than efficient performance, this evaluation finds no evidence at this time of either widespread “gold-plating” or performance problems.     

The effectiveness of different policy regimes for promoting wind power: Experiences from the states

Governments at the state (and to a lesser extent, local) level in the United States have adopted an array of policies to promote wind and other types of “green” energy, including solar, geothermal, low-impact hydropower, and certain forms of biomass. However, because of different regulatory environments, energy resource endowments, political interests, and other factors, there is considerable variation among the states in their green power policies. This paper analyzes the contribution to wind power development of several state-level policies (renewable portfolio standards (RPS), fuel generation disclosure rules, mandatory green power options, and public benefits funds), along with retail choice (RET) facilitated by electricity restructuring. The empirical results support existing anecdotal and case studies in finding a positive relationship between RPS and wind power development. We also found that requiring electricity suppliers to provide green power options to customers is positively related to development of wind energy, while there is a negative relationship between wind energy development and RET (i.e., allowing retail customers to choose their electricity source).     

Making European-style community wind power development work in the US

Once primarily a European phenomenon, community wind power development—defined here as one or more locally owned, utility-scale wind turbines interconnected on either the customer or utility side of the meter—is gaining a foothold in an increasing number of states throughout the US. This article describes the various policies and incentives that Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Massachusetts are using to support community wind power development, and how state and federal support influences the types of projects and ownership structures that are being developed. Experience in these states demonstrates that, with an array of incentives and creative financing schemes targeted at community-scale projects, there are opportunities to make community wind work in the US.     

Between fragmented authoritarianism and policy coordination: Creating a Chinese market for wind energy

The Chinese grid-connected wind energy sector has undergone a number of fundamental changes during its 20 years of existence. The scope of this article is to track the reforms of the energy bureaucracy and its policy approach on the one hand and changes in wind energy installations on the other. By comparing three historically distinct phases of wind energy in China it is shown how policy reforms have changed largely from a state of “fragmented authoritarianism” towards policy coordination. In the initial phase (1986–1993), wind energy was expanding very slowly with disjointed policy making and in the incremental phase (1994–1999), the energy authorities were in dispute over the strategy and launched conflicting policy initiatives with poor results in wind energy output. The latest coordinated phase (2000–2006), however, developed a coherent renewable energy agenda and policy regime for the wind power sector. It is found that this phase with coordinated market regulations and incentives has helped give birth to a take-off in Chinese wind energy installations and substantial cost reductions, although the latter is threatening the profitability of wind farms. The article contributes to the academic debate over the role of policy making in renewable energy development and argues that China should continue, and improve, the coordination of regulations and incentives.     

Impact of public policy uncertainty on renewable energy investment: Wind power and the production tax credit

It is generally understood that the pattern of repeated expiration and short-term renewal of the federal production tax credit (PTC) causes a boom–bust cycle in wind power plant investment in the US. This on–off pattern is detrimental to the wind industry, since ramp-up and ramp-down costs are high, and players are deterred from making long-term investments. It is often assumed that the severe downturn in investment during “off” years implies that wind power is unviable without the PTC. This assumption turns out to be unsubstantiated: this paper demonstrates that it is not the absence of the PTC that causes the investment downturn during “off” years, but rather the uncertainty over its return. Specifically, it is the dynamic of power purchase agreement (PPA) negotiations in the face of PTC renewal uncertainty that drives investment volatility. With contract negotiations prevalent in the renewable energy industry, this finding suggests that reducing uncertainty is a crucial component of effective renewable energy policy. The PTC as currently structured is not the only means, existing or potential, for encouraging wind power investment. Using data from a survey of energy professionals, various policy instruments are compared in terms of their perceived stability for supporting long-term investment.     

A new basis for assessing the sustainability of natural resources

Natural resources are generally referred to as “depleteable” and “renewable.” The term “renewable” typically refers to “biological” resources, such as fish and forests. Other renewable resources, including hydro, solar, tidal, wave and wind power are not explicitly addressed by existing economic theories. Identification of the physical and economic characteristics of natural resources enables the real cost of natural resource use to be identified, providing the basis of a single unifying theory of all resources based on a user cost function. Two key considerations emerge: firstly, in relation to resource depletion, it is necessary to explore the role of rate of consumption relative to rate of supply as a quantitative aspect of resources; secondly, in relation to pollution, it is necessary to investigate the role of rate of change of entropy as a resource is utilised as a qualitative aspect of resources. Once the true costs of resource use have been established, natural resources can be classified in a systematic way. Clear differences between different types of natural resources emerge, leading to new terms being proposed to describe different resource types.     

风力发电项目多目标决策研究

随着风力发电技术的不断发展,风力发电已成为我国重点发展的可再生能源产业。如何科学有效地选择风电项目,既关系到投资商的切身利益,也关系到风能的有效开发利用。文章利用层次分析法,在分析风电项目关键影响因素的基础上,建立多目标决策的风电项目评价模型,以帮助开发商选择合适的风电场项目,促进风能的开发利用。     

The relative importance of social and institutional conditions in the planning of wind power projects

Governments around the world try to stimulate the development and use of renewable energy technologies, like wind energy. While wind turbines are increasingly being implemented, however, a lack of social acceptance at the local level remains an important challenge for developers of wind power plants. This article aims to explore the relative importance of social and institutional conditions and their interdependencies in the operational process of planning wind power schemes. The article not only focuses on how negative local social conditions can frustrate public policy (cf. NIMBY syndrome), but also on how positive local social conditions can compensate for a negative public policy framework. We analyzed the cases of implementing wind power of two actors (the regional energy distributor and small private investors) in the municipality of Zeewolde, the Netherlands. Both cases illustrate that the formal institutional framework (formal rules, procedures and instruments) is neutral in a certain sense. Social conditions – management styles, interests and informal contacts – put meaning in this framework. The way stakeholders deal with the prevailing institutional structure clarifies social acceptance and therewith implementation.     

Societal acceptance of wind farms: Analysis of four common themes across Australian case studies

Australia's renewable energy target (RET) seeks to provide 20 per cent of Australia's electricity generation from renewable energy sources by 2020. As wind power is relatively advanced, it was anticipated that wind power will contribute a major component of the early target. However, high levels of societal resistance to wind farms, combined with new regulatory policies, indicate the RET may not be dominated by wind power. This research involved an examination of seven case studies around wind farm deployment. Qualitative interviews were the primary data for the case studies and analysed using methods informed by grounded theory. Despite the diversity of stakeholder views, the qualitative analysis identified strong community support for wind farms but four common themes emerged that influence this societal acceptance of wind farms in Australia: trust, distributional justice, procedural justice and place attachment. Without addressing these factors through integration into policy development and engagement approaches, wind energy is unlikely to provide the early and majority of new renewable energy. Similar international experiences are incorporated in the discussion of the Australian wind industry's societal acceptance.     

The role of taxation policy and incentives in wind-based distributed generation projects viability: Ontario case study

Taxation policy and incentives play a vital role in wind-based distributed generation projects viability. In this paper, a thorough techno-economical evaluation of wind-based distributed generation projects is conducted to investigate the effect of taxes and incentives in the economic viability of investments in this sector. This paper considers the effects of Provincial income taxes, capital cost allowance (CCA), property taxes, and wind power production Federal incentives. The case study is conducted for different wind turbines and wind speed scenarios. Given turbine and wind speed data, the Capacity Factor (CF) of each turbine and wind speed scenario was calculated. Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for different scenarios were then used to assess the project's viability considering Ontario Standard Offer Program (SOP) for wind power.     

From laggard to leader: Explaining offshore wind developments in the UK

Offshore wind technology has recently undergone rapid deployment in the UK. And yet, up until recently, the UK was considered a laggard in terms of deploying renewable energy. How can this burst of offshore wind activity be explained? An economic analysis would seek signs for newfound competitiveness for offshore wind in energy markets. A policy analysis would highlight renewable energy policy developments and assess their contribution to economic prospects of offshore wind. However, neither perspective sheds sufficient light on the advocacy of the actors involved in the development and deployment of the technology. Without an account of technology politics it is hard to explain continuing policy support despite rising costs. By analysing the actor networks and narratives underpinning policy support for offshore wind, we explain how a fairly effective protective space was constructed through the enroling of key political and economic interests.     

The prospects for an expansion of biogas systems in Sweden—Incentives,barriers and potentials

Biogas is a renewable, high-quality fuel, currently produced at more than 200 locations in Sweden. The present production is some 5 PJ/year but the potential is approximately 10 times higher. Biogas can be produced from a wide range of raw materials, from organic waste to dedicated energy crops, and can be utilised for various energy services such as heat, combined heat and power or as a vehicle fuel. Biogas systems are therefore affected by a number of different incentives and barriers, including energy-, waste treatment- and agricultural policies. In this paper, different policies and policy instruments, as well as other factors, which influence a potential expansion of Swedish biogas systems, are identified and evaluated. Existing incentives and barriers can be divided into those affecting the production of biogas, and those affecting the utilisation of the biogas. Only a few types of biogas systems are competitive in Sweden today, while the majority needs increased incentives of different kinds to reach profitability. Such incentives are often motivated from an energy and environmental point of view. Due to the complexity of the biogas systems and the many actors involved, all with different interests, the process of implementing adequate policy instruments will require concerted efforts.     

Co-benefit analysis of incentives for energy generation and storage systems; a multi-stakeholder perspective

In this work, we are analyzing the advantages of energy incentives for all the stakeholders in an energy system. The stakeholders include the government, the energy hub operator, and the energy consumer. Two streams of energy incentives were compared in this work: incentives for renewable energy generation technologies and incentives for energy storage technologies. The first type aims increasing the share of renewable energies in the electricity system while the second type aims development of systems which use clean electricity to replace fossil fuels in other sectors of an energy system such as the transportation, residential and industrial sector. In this work, we are analyzing the advantages of energy incentives for all the stakeholders in an energy system. The stakeholders include the government, the energy hub operator, and the energy consumer. Two streams of energy incentives were compared in this work: incentives for renewable energy generation technologies and incentives for energy storage technologies. The first type aims to increase the share of renewable energies in the electricity system while the second type aims the development of systems which use clean electricity to replace fossil fuels in other sectors of an energy system such as the transportation, residential and industrial sector. The results of the analysis showed that replacing fossil fuel-based electricity generation with wind and solar power is a less expensive way for the energy consumer to reduce GHG emissions (60 and 92 CAD/ tonne CO_2e for wind and solar, respectively) compared to investing on energy storage technologies (225 and 317 CAD/ tonne CO_2e for Power-to-Gas and battery powered forklifts, respectively). However, considering the current Ontario's electricity mix, incentives for the Power-to-Gas and battery powered technologies are less expensive ways to reduce emissions compared to replacing the grid with wind and solar power technologies (1479 and 2418 CAD/ tonne CO_2e for wind and solar, respectively). Our analysis also shows that battery storage and hydrogen storage are complementary technologies for reducing GHG emissions in Ontario.