However, the practice in both developed and less developed world has also shown numerous barriers hindering the widespread of wind power. These constraints might also make above mentioned targets of wind power development become too ambitious or even infeasible. This paper, thus, critically examines several major barriers of wind power development worldwide, particularly on non-technical barriers. The barriers addressed here are grouped into three different categories namely cost and pricing related barriers, market performance related barriers and legal and regulatory barriers. These barriers need to be addressed for further development of wind power worldwide, concludes the paper.

Cost and pricing related barriers

The first constraint of wind power development would be addressed is cost and pricing related barriers, which could be considered one of the most crucial constraints hindering the development of wind power in both developed countries and developing countries. This group of barriers might emerge from several following facts. First, conventional fuels such as fossil fuels often receive large public subsidies while renewable energies including wind power may not (Beck and Martinot, 2004). Second, because of its characteristic as a new and high technology, wind power requires huge initial costs. Indeed, due to the market failure when real economic costs of environmental damages of fossil fuels are rarely priced into fuel costs. These all together lead to high cost of each kWh power generation from wind and to high purchasing price and therefore to make wind power less comparative to conventional fuels.

In developed countries, these barriers have put the ambitious targets of wind power development of governments into controversy. In the UK, a key argument of anti-wind power proponents is that ‘wind means fuel poverty’. For example, Sir David King (The UK government’s former chief scientific adviser ) argued, on BBC Radio 4 on 10 September 2008, that: ‘If we over do wind, we are going to put up the price of electricity and that push more people into the fuel poverty trap. In my view it is an expensive and not a clever route for 35 to 40 per cent from wind turbine’. Another example in Australia, the current high producing cost and purchasing price of wind power are causing a fear that development this new costly energy is inappropriate for the Australian crisis of energy. The argument (Sharam, 2003) made here is that Australians need efficient use of energy instead of wind power. Sharam (2003) states that ‘without efficient use of energy, demand for energy will continue to grow exponentially and will eventually become so large that it will be impossible for renewables… to ever become more than niche sources’.

For the developing countries, they have 80 per cent of the world’s population and consume 30 per cent of global commercial energy (Martinot et al., 2002). What they really want is the low cost (or price) generated power to firstly meet their basic needs such as for home lighting and cooking, therefore wind power at the present seems to be a luxury good. Even for those who can afford to this, the monthly costs for traditional sources of energy and renewable sources are not comparable (Martinot et al., 2002). Furthermore, although being supported by international donors to promote renewable energy such as via Clean Development Mechanism projects, donors such as the World Bank have not reduced their incentives for conventional fuels such as fossil fuels.

Market performance related barriers

The second group of barriers should be addressed is those relating to market performance. They might include the lack of technical and commercial information and lack of technology and expertise, which developing countries could be argued to face the most. Compared to long historical markets in developed countries, wind power markets have just been active for the last few years in several developing countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, Morocco (REN21, 2008) and even in the two leading countries, China and India. Indeed, modern and advantageous technology relating to wind power installation and production are possessed by the biggest wind energy manufactures, who are mostly from Europe and the US. For the newly emerged markets in developing countries, skilled personnel who can install, operate and maintain renewable energy technologies do not exist in large number. The lack of skills and information may increase perceived uncertainties and block decisions (Beck and Martinot, 2004).

Representative for developing countries, Chinese companies have won a share of the world market, however, the number are quite a few. Even in its domestic market, China has been dominated by foreign companies. The top three foreign manufactures (Gamesa, Vestas and GE) won 37 per cent of Chinese market in 2007 (GWEC, 2008). The Chinese government seeks to encourage its wind power industry via current concession projects, in which China stated that 70 per cent of the wind turbine components should be made in China (GWEC, 2008).

Legal and regulatory related barriers

Of most noticeably, there are a number of remaining barriers, in terms of legal and regulatory, preventing wind power production and investment from occurring and the evidences could be found in both developed countries and developing countries.

Firstly, it should be addressed that many producers get difficulty with excessive permitting requirements and sitting restrictions as implementing a new wind power firm. Wind turbines may face all restriction based upon height, aesthetics, noise, particularly in urban area. They have faced specific environmental concerns related to sitting migratory bird paths and coastal areas and completion for land use with other sectors. The Global Wind 2007 Report by GWEC highlights that one of the emerging challenges faced by wind energy developers in Canada is permitting and approval process, which should be made more efficient and streamlined, particularly at the municipal level. This is also a remaining issue for wind power industry in France. In France, there is a diffuse pattern of administrative landscape protection which impacts on the construction of wind farms. Landscape is among the principal reasons invoked by the local administration for rejecting projects. On average, about 20 per cent of wind power applications were denied construction permits in 2005, a proportion which varied from 0 to 56 per cent depending on the region (Minefi (2006), cited by Nadai and Labussiere(2009)). In Germany, a relevant regulation is the German Federal Building Code, under which wind energy plants are regarded as so-called ‘privileged projects’. Local authorities are asked to designate specific priority or preferential zones for wind energy utilisation. This, however, can restrict construction to specific areas (GWEC, 2008). In developing countries, wind power development projects may face competition or conflicts for land use with agriculture, recreational, and other development interests at local as well as national level.

Another issue is the lack of adequate legal framework for independent producers. According to Beck and Martinot (2004), in many countries, power utilities still control a monopoly on electricity production and distribution, thus independent producers, in the absence of a legal framework, may not be able to invest in renewable energy facilities and sell power to the utility or to the third parties. For example, according to GWEC (2008), the monopolistic position of the state suppliers is the main obstacle for more widespread renewable energy use in Mexico.

The last obstacle should be addressed in this paper is the issue of transmission access and pricing rules. For such renewable energy like wind power, transmission access is necessary because windy sites are often located far from population centres. Transmission or distribution access is also necessary for direct third party sales between the power producers and the final consumers. In many countries, new transmission access to remote renewable energy sites might be blocked by transmission access rulings or right-of-way disputes (Beck and Martinot, 2004). The transmission capacity issue seems to be quite obvious in developing countries where the industry is still new and the infrastructure is inferior on overall. The availability of transmission capacity is also an emerging issue largely recognised by even leading countries. GWEC (2008) addresses this issue in Canada that there are already some areas of Canada where wind developers must await the completion of major transmission upgrades before work can proceed. Significant investments in new transmission over the next decade are expected in Canada, but it remains to be determined how much of this will be designed to facilitate both access to wind resources and greater wind generation. For France’s situation, the lack of connection capacity is also a barrier in some areas, particularly in centre of France near the Massif Central, and in the northern regions of Nord-Pas de Calais and Picardy, where the grid is saturated in some areas (GWEC, 2008).

Conclusion

Arguably, there are numerous barriers hindering the widespread of wind power. These constraints might also make national targets of wind power development of both developed and developing countries become too ambitious or even infeasible. The paper has examined three main groups of barriers. The first is cost and pricing related barriers faced by both developed and developing countries. These obstacles result in massive cost of each kWh power generation from wind energy, and thus in the poor competiveness with conventional energy. Secondly, barriers of market performance such as poor information access and inadequate expertise or skills would be arguably faced mostly by developing countries. Last by not least, there are a number of remaining barriers, in terms of legal and regulatory, preventing wind power production and investment from occurring and the evidences could be found in both developed countries and developing countries. Thus, these barriers need to be addressed for further development of wind power worldwide.

Beck, F. and Martinot, E. (2004). Renewable energy policies and barriers. In Encyclopaedia of Energy. Academic Press/Elsevier Science, San Diego

GWEC (2008). Global Wind 2007 Report. http://www.gwec.net/index.php?id=90 (accessed on 20/05/2010)

Martinot, E. et al. (2002). Renewable Energy Markets in Developing Countries. Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 27: 309-348.

Nadai, A. and Labussiere, O. (2009). Wind power planning in France (Aveyron), from state regulation to local planning. Land Use Policy 26: 744-754

NATTA (2008). Natta Newsletter 176. Self-published.

REN21 (2008). Renewables 2007: Global Status Report. http://www.ren21.net/pdf/RE2007_Global_Status_Report.pdf (accessed on 20/05/2010)

Sharam, A. (2003). What’s Wrong With The Dash for Wind? Dissent No.12

The majority of all types of renewable energy have been used for electricity generation. Among those, wind power has been the largest component of renewables generation capacity and one of the fastest growing power generation technologies. Recognising the great potential and the advantages of this form of energy, the global community has made a lot of effort in wind power development.

This article, therefore, seeks to highlight the advantage of wind power and outline current development status of this source of energy worldwide.

Wind power: Huge promises

Wind power has been recognised as a positive solution for the global crisis of energy supply and human-induced climate change because of its comparable characteristics.

Initially, wind power is one of the lowest environmental impacts of all energy forms. A wind power plant releases tiny greenhouse gas emissions and pollution by its construction and there no emissions and pollution generated by its operation. Indeed, a wind turbine (over its working life time) is about to generate 80 times the energy required to produce it (Diesendorf, 2004). In addition, an onshore wind farm occupies less land area per kWh of electricity generated than any other conversion system (except for rooftop solar energy) and thus is compatible with grazing and crops. It also does not require the consumption of water supplies.

Most noticeably, wind power is one of the fastest growing energy technologies in the world with the annual growth rate of about 30 per cent (GWEC [1] (2008), Diesendorf (2004)). According to the Renewables 2007: Global Status Report by REN21 [2], of the total investment flow of $71 billion in new renewable power in 2007 worldwide, the investment in wind power accounted for the largest proportion with 47 per cent, followed by solar PV with 30 per cent, solar hot water with 9 per cent and small shares of all the rest forms together. Furthermore, wind power was affirmed as the largest component of renewable generation capacity, which grew by 28 per cent worldwide in 2007 to reach an estimated 95 GW (GWEC, 2008).

Another advantage of wind power is its endless resource. A review by Stanford University (cited in Natta Newsletter 176) concluded that wind power alone could satisfy the world requirement for sufficient and clean energy: ‘Globally, about 13 per cent of all reporting stations experience annual mean wind speeds of 6.9 m/s at 80 m and can therefore be considered suitable for low-cost wind power generation. Even if only about 20 per cent of this power could be captured, it could satisfy 100 per cent of the world’s energy demand for all purposes (6995-10177Mtoe) and over seven times the world’s electricity needs (1.6-1.8TW)’ [3]. The capacity of wind power is also asserted by GWEC that ‘Resource depletion will never be a problem for wind power. We only just begun to scratch the surface of its potential.’ (GWEC, 2008).

Wind power development: The current state and expectations

Acknowledging to all these above recognised characteristics, wind power has been expected to play a key role in combating climate change, achieving security of energy supply and feeding increasing consumption of developing countries.

During the last decade, the world witnessed the boom of wind power market and industry. The US, China and Spain have lead world wind power market. In terms of installed capacity, the top five countries are Germany, the US, Spain, India and China (GWEC, 2008).

Even in a lag country as the UK, wind became the UK leading renewable energy in 2007 (NATTA, 2008). Ambitious targets of power generation from this renewable energy have been set up to achieve across the world. The US targets that 20 per cent of total electricity supply will be from wind power by 2030 (GWEC, 2008). The UK emphasises 10 per cent of the country electricity support to be provided by renewable energy by 2010 and wind power is expected to be the major contributor (GWEC, 2008).

The EU aims to increase the share of electricity produced from renewable energy sources to 21 per cent by 2010 and wind power development is, again, expected to play a key role. China sets up the target to reach 30 GW of installed wind capacity by 2020 (GWEC, 2008).

Clearly, ambitious targets of power generation from this renewable energy have been set up to achieve across the world.

[1] GWEC refers to Global Wind Energy Council

[2] REN21 refers to Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21^st Century (Official website: www.ren21.net)

[3] www.standford.edu/group/efmh/winds/globals_wind.html

Diesendorf, M. (2004). Why Australia Needs Wind Power? Dissent No. 13: 43-48

GWEC (2008). Global Wind 2007 Report. http://www.gwec.net/index.php?id=90 (accessed on 20/05/2010)

REN21 (2008). Renewables 2007: Global Status Report. http://www.ren21.net/pdf/RE2007_Global_Status_Report.pdf (accessed on 20/05/2010)

NATTA (2008). Natta Newsletter 176. Self-published.

Wind Farm Image http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/wind_farm.jpg