Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
gleaned from the case studies suggest that there are four attributes related
to policy implementation and monitoring that are imperative for sustain-
able wind power development success.
11.3.1 Malleability
As often mentioned throughout this topic, wind power policy should be
viewed as a dynamic undertaking because policy initiatives catalyze feed-
back responses in other inluential areas, which in turn initiate further
feedback responses throughout the system. Sophisticated monitoring sys-
tems are needed to evaluate how the STEP environment responds to policy
implementation. his should not be done on an ad hoc basis. Policymakers
must ensure that structures, strategies, and actor competencies are aligned
and positioned to respond efectively and expediently to the changing
dynamics of the energy sector.
Structurally, monitoring units need to be set up within policymaking
departments and funding must be made available to allow these units
to track developments in the STEP environment. his need not be an
expensive undertaking; however, this must be institutionalized to ensure
that results from the monitoring process are fed back into policy refor-
mulation. he greatest error during the implementation process is to fail
to provide strategic structure to permit policy reformulation in a timely
manner.
Strategically, as STEP conditions change in response to policy or other
inluences, policymakers need to be prepared and empowered to modify
policy or introduce new initiatives to address emergent challenges. For
example, in Denmark and Germany, policymakers have been quick to
respond to public opposition stemming from high concentrations of wind
farms in certain regions. Policymakers in both nations have addressed
this challenge by shifting development patterns and reestablishing inan-
cial incentives in target communities. Similarly, in China, the govern-
ment has responded quickly to information that wind farms were unable
to transmit energy to the electricity grid by expediting grid reinforce-
ment projects.
In order to efectively traverse the bridge between monitoring and policy
reformulation, the individuals responsible for these processes must pos-
sess suicient interpersonal aptitude. Resistance to policy reformulation
should be expected because those who have initially formulated policy
typically do so with a degree of conidence that the policies will indeed lead
to the desired results. his suggests that combining the actors involved
