The previous paper, Wind power: An advantageous energy solution, discusses that base upon its increasingly recognised advantage, wind power is expected to play a key role in combating human-induced climate change, dealing with a global crisis for energy supply, and in development and poverty eradication in developing countries. Also in the previous article, it is observed that both developed and developing countries have made a lot of efforts to the recent wind power development. Noticeably, ambitious targets of wind power have been set up to achieve across the world. For example, the US targets that 20 per cent of total electricity supply will be from wind power by 2030. 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 expected to play a key role. China sets up the target to reach 30 GW of installed wind capacity by 2020 (GWEC, 2008).
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
