Empowering wind power; On social and institutional conditions affecting the performance of entrepreneurs in the wind power supply market in the Netherlands

This dissertation focuses on wind energy for electricity generation, analysing the evolution of the wind power supply market in the Netherlands. We analysed different kind of wind power entrepreneurs (energy distributors, small private investors, wind cooperatives and new independent wind power producers), their capacity to implement wind energy and the social and institutional conditions that affected their investments over the period 1989-2004. Central in the analyses are the institutional regulatory dimension and the social context as explanatory variables for the emergence and performance of these wind power entrepreneurs. Special attention is given to the liberalisation of the electricity market. The primary social actors for the implementation of wind energy projects in a liberalised market are entrepreneurs willing to invest. Understanding conditions that trigger entrepreneurs to invest in these projects, and understanding conditions that determine the chance of success for entrepreneurs to implement and exploit their projects, is vital for setting up effective policies to stimulate wind electricity generation. The analytical perspective that we used to study investment behaviour of wind power entrepreneurs and their capacity to implement wind energy can be referred to as the ‘new institutional perspective’. Based on this new institutional perspective the concept of implementation capacity has been developed. Implementation capacity indicates the feasibility for wind power entrepreneurs to adopt wind turbines, and enables to explain, comparatively, changing possibilities in time for different types of entrepreneurs. The development of the wind power supply market is divided into three successive market periods: Monopoly powers (1989-1995), Interbellum (1996-1997) and Free market (1998-2002). We conducted case studies on the implementation capacity of the four entrepreneurial groups in each of the three market periods. The case studies led to conclusions about the way in which social and institutional conditions affected the implementation capacity of different types of entrepreneurs in each of these periods. From the analysis it was concluded that no overall implementation capacity exists, and implementation capacities differ for entrepreneurial groups with different entrepreneurial features. The dynamic configuration of institutional and social conditions on different levels of government facilitates some and hinders other types of wind power entrepreneurs, and as a result determines the development and composition of the market. Various parties are dependent on each other in the production of wind energy. At the start of the 1990s the energy distribution companies dominated the market. Later agrarians led the pack and new independent wind power project developers emerged on the scene. According to Agterbosch, in the 1990s government policy focused far too long on large-scale applications by energy companies and ignored the limited motivation of this business group to invest in decentralised and fluctuating assets. The national wind policy also failed to take into account the societal and procedural problems of this business group at the subnational level. The fact that other entrepreneurial groups such as agrarians encountered far fewer problems in realising their projects, did not receive attention at a national level