Winds of Change This page intentionally left blank WINDS OF CHANGE The Environmental Movement and the Global Development of the Wind Energy Industry Ion Bogdan Vasi 1 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2011 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data Vasi, Ion Bogdan. Winds of change: the environmental movement and the global development of the wind energy industry / Ion Bogdan Vasi. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-974692-7 1. Wind power industry. 2. Environmentalism. I. Title. HD9502.5.W55V37 2011 333.9'2—dc22 2010016162 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid‐free paper Contents Introduction: The Wind Energy Industry and the Environmental Movement 3 1 The Big Picture: The Environmental Movement’s Impact on the Global Development of the Wind Energy Industry 24 2 Environmental Campaigns and the Adoption and Implementation of Feed-in Tariffs 53 3 Environmental Campaigns and the Adoption and Implementation of Renewable Portfolio Standards 86 4 From Thinking Globally about Climate Change to Acting Locally on the Energy Challenge 116 5 Going with the Wind: The Environmentalist Transformation of the Electricity Sector 142 Conclusion: The Answer May Be Blowing in the Wind 184 Notes 199 References 235 Index 251 This page intentionally left blank Preface and Acknowledgments This book has two origins. One goes back to the mid‐1990s, when I fi rst encountered wind turbines. I was riding a bicycle through northern Germany, on a road that wound through a rural area dotted with large but sleek turbines. I was immediately impressed by their elegance and technological sophistica- tion. Standing right next to a machine that produced electricity for almost a hundred houses, I was able to have a conversation with my guide in a normal voice. There was no air pollution, no radiation, and the fuel was free. Many local residents owned shares in the wind farm and were very proud of the tur- bines’ presence in their “backyard.” Later I remembered a song by Ella Fitzgerald and I thought, This Could be the Start of Something Big! The other origin of this book goes back to the second-half of the 1990s, when more and more people—including me—became concerned about global climate change. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and, at the end of the twentieth century, a number of states and local governments were already reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases. My doctoral educa- tion at Cornell University exposed me to the most innovative theories about social movements and collective action, and led me to study what I termed the ultimate social dilemma: global climate change. I wrote my dissertation on local actions against global climate change, seeking to understand why some communities were taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint while others were not. During my research, I became more and more interested in renewable energy and, in particular, wind power. I decided to write a book about wind energy at about the same time I decided to run my fi rst marathon, in 2005. Little did I know that running a marathon and writing a book have so much in common! For example, a certain amount of pain and anxiety is involved in both experiences. While I did not suffer physically when I conducted research and typed the man- uscript, I sometimes felt that my writing was painfully slow, and I asked myself frequently, “Will I be able to fi nish what I’ve started when I want to?” Also, euphoric moments punctuate the monotony of both experiences. Writing a good section thrilled me as much as fi nishing a good training run. Finally, both experiences are simultaneously solitary and social. The viii Preface and Acknowledgments solitude of running is famously captured by the title of Alan Sillitoe’s story The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , and the solitude of writing is captured by the title of Wright Morris’s collection of novels The Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer. But, in both writing and running, a good out- come depends on the amount of social support received—in fact, the hero in Sillitoe’s story does not fi nish the run because he does not have the necessary support. If I was able to fi nish the book—and eight marathons—by June 2010, it is mainly because I had help. During the race to fi nish this book, and even before I began, I was fortu- nate to have a great deal of support from colleagues, students, friends, and loved ones. Sidney Tarrow deserves most thanks for constantly advising me, beginning with my dissertation study and continuing through the research and writing of this book. David Strang, Michael Lounsbury, and Michael Macy also deserve special thanks for offering ideas on literatures and helping me improve my understanding of social change processes. I owe thanks to Daniel Sherman and Felix Kolb for offering extensive comments on how to structure the book. I also owe a lot to Chuck Tilly, who was extremely gen- erous and commented on an early draft of the manuscript even though he was not physically well. Braydon King, Doug McAdam, David Meyer, Hayagreeva Rao, Jackie Smith, Sarah Soule, and Mayer Zald also deserve thanks for offering suggestions and encouragement. Along the way, I was very fortunate to have a number of students from Columbia University who helped me with the research; without their help, this book would have taken signifi cantly longer to complete. I owe thanks to Eliav Bitan, Whitney Blake, William Covin, Gabriel Cowles, Molly DeSalle, Myriame Gabay, Elyse Hottel, Kara Kirchhoff, Jessica McHugh, Cathleen Monahan, Andrew Miller, Carlos Rymer, and Alla Sobel. I also owe thanks to my good friend Sarah Coleman, who read each chapter and helped me edit the manuscript. James Cook, the patient and creative editor from Oxford University Press, and three anonymous reviewers provided essential advice for refi ning my arguments: I thank all of them. The people who agreed to be interviewed and to provide various docu- ments made this book possible; they are too many to list. But it is obvious that I couldn’t have completed this project without their help. I couldn’t think of a better way to thank them than to donate all the money I will receive from writing this book to a company that builds new wind farms. Finally, I could not have completed this book without support from my family. I always knew I could count on my parents for moral support. My wife, Mihaela, has been as patient and supportive as I could have ever wished. And thinking about our wonderful daughters, Anna and Iris, gave me the strength I needed to complete what I started. I dedicate this book, with much love and gratitude, to them. Winds of Change This page intentionally left blank Introduction The Wind Energy Industry and the Environmental Movement Wind energy conversion is a fascinating fi eld to study, if only because its past has been so checkered and its exact future is so uncertain. Unlike the aerospace industry, the computer industry, and almost any other success- ful industry you can name, wind energy . has been around for thou- sands of years. It’s a technology that has been reinvented numerous times. We are left with the promise and the drive to succeed despite daunting obstacles. —Darrell Dodge, “An Illustrated History of Wind Power Development,” http://www.telosnet.com/wind/20th.html (accessed April 2007) The Puzzling Development of the Wind Energy Industry The answer to future problems of energy supply seemed to be blowing in the wind in 1980. The global generating capacity of wind power was only 10 megawatts (MW)—enough electricity to power approximately three thou- sand “average” U.S. homes, but many policymakers and energy analysts were optimistic about the future of the wind energy industry. That year the U.S. House of Representatives had voted “to harness the wind and put it to work for a brighter America” by passing the Wind Energy Systems Act, a bill that aimed to reach a total capacity from wind energy systems of at least 800 MW by 1988. 1 In the same year, analysts from the U.S. Department of Energy were estimating that the United States would likely get 20 percent of its electricity from wind by the year 2000. 2 Indeed, as new materials and technologies became available, a new era of wind energy began in the 1980s. By 1985, the United States had an installed capacity of more than 1 gigawatt (GW) from wind energy, far exceeding the goal of 800 MW by 1988, as set forth in the Wind Energy Systems Act. Five years 3 4 Winds of Change later the worldwide capacity had almost doubled, and almost three-quarters of the installed capacity in 1990 was in the United States.