Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
regional utilities have led to wind farms being constructed in areas that lack
T&D infrastructure. Consequently, the power that is generated from the wind
turbines does not always reach the electricity grid. In Japan, the recent wind
power FITs that have been announced are among the highest in the world
and this has elevated the scale and number of wind projects under develop-
ment. However, lack of coordination between the central government, pre-
fectural authorities and municipal planners has forced wind power developers
into “cold call” development patterns where developers must try and negotiate
suitable sites in the face of community (and sometimes municipal) resistance.
Contrary to this, successful difusion of wind power in Germany and Denmark
has largely been attributed to ampliied levels of coordination between central,
regional, and community level policy planners and high levels of collaboration
between citizens, industry, academia, and government oicials to address
emergent problems as wind power capacity increases.
he lesson for policymakers and wind power developers is to ensure
that wind power projects are designed through an inclusive process that is
bottom-up, to ensure that the concerns and needs of stakeholders in tar-
geted host communities will be adequately addressed. Even in situations
where the central government is incapable of unifying wind power policy,
subnational actors can optimize success by fostering collaborative planning
to the greatest extent possible. his is particularly true for nations such as
Canada or the United States, where wind power development is driven by
provincial or state level policy strategy.
10.5.9 Political Factor 9: Perceived Risk to National Security
One inal political factor that inluences the fortunes of wind power develop-
ment in a given nation relates to risk. Research indicates that the political
instability that characterizes many fossil fuel exporting nations is viewed
by many fossil fuel dependent nations as a threat to national security.
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In
all six case studies the inception of wind power development harkens back
to the 1970s, when the two oil crises catalyzed fossil fuel price inlation. In
response, all of the case study nations began to explore ways to diversify
energy supplies and one of the strategies was to attenuate risk through tech-
nological diversiication. Similarly in recent times, concerns over oil spon-
sored terrorism and the capricious nature of fossil fuel prices have prompted
all six case study nations to elevate support for wind power development.
Wind power advocates that can efectively promote wind power develop-
ment as an essential cog in a program for improving national security stand
a far greater chance of engendering broader support.
