1 Wind-Power Development in Germany and the U.S.: Structural Factors, Multiple-Stream Convergence, and Turning Points a chapter in Andreas Duit, ed., State and Environment: The Comparative Study of Environmental Governance [tentative title] Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, forthcoming in 2014 Roger Karapin Department of Political Science Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center New York, USA Email:
[email protected] May 2013 final draft Introduction Renewable energy is seen as a solution to problems of anthropogenic climate change, air pollution, resource scarcity, and dependence on energy imports (Vasi 2009; IPCC 2012). Of the various forms of renewable energy, wind-generated electricity has a unique set of advantages, which make its potential environmental benefits especially large. Wind power produces relatively low levels of environmental damage over its life cycle (like solar), 1 relies on relatively mature technology, and already comprises a nontrivial share of energy production (like hydro and biomass). It is also based on a potentially enormous natural resource and has been growing rapidly in many industrialized and developing countries (Greene, et al. 2010). Global installed capacity of wind power rose an average of 25% a year from 2001 to 2012, to a total of 282,000 Megawatts (MW), and wind power now generates about 3% of global electricity consumption (data from World Wind Energy Association and BP 2012). 2 Although common experiences with the oil crises of the 1970s and more recent concerns 2 about global warming have motivated most industrialized countries to adopt wind-power development policies, they vary greatly in the extent to which they have successfully developed this renewable-energy source.