Political Liberalisation and “Green Innovation” at the Danish Energy Scene. Paper for PhD course on “Institutions and Public Regulation: Options for Planning and Managing Technological Innovation” at

Since 1976 a ”Green energy cluster ” consisting of renewable energy technologies such as wind power, solar energy and biomass technologies, and energy conservation technologies has developed in Denmark. The export of these technologies has increased from 540 mill. ECU in 1992 to around 5000 mill. ECU in 2002 and the employment have increased to around 25000 persons. This sector consequently is one of the main reasons why the Denmark had a balance of payment surplus of 4800 mill. ECU in 2002 and a relatively low unemployment rate. But which were the main reasons behind this development of a “Green Energy Cluster”? This is the main question to be dealt with in this paper. The main agents were the grass root movements within renewable energy, the Parliament, the medium scale production companies and the energy companies. In general the energy companies regarded the new “Green technologies ” as competitors to their large power plants based upon coal and oil, and tried to slow down and/or hinder the “green innovation ” process. The success was achieved by an active collaboration between some politicians recognising that an active energy policy was necessary and possible, private construction firms and an energy grass root movement. In this process a set of very concrete institutional reforms were established during the eighties and the nineties, furthering the “Green innovation “ development process. This paper deal with the innovative political process developing the institutional reforms as well as a description of a set of concrete institutional reforms furthering the innovative development