ESRC Seminar Series: Where next for wind? Robert Gordon University, 21 st February 2008 Thinking cross-nationally: towards a better understanding of wind power deployment Richard Cowell, School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University

Context: intensifying emphasis on renewable energy varied levels of expansion across Europe Aim of the seminar series: To drive forward the critical, cross-national investigation of the factors affecting the deployment of wind power, improve the evidence base, and deepen the pool of lessons for policy learning

The why and how of cross-national investigation Context: Growing ‘market’ for policy lessons Need to use this ‘laboratory’ better Developments in cross-national wind energy research in the social sciences: Use of institutionalist perspectives Innovation in the analysis of social attitudes

Future challenges in cross- national research: Evaluating ‘success’? Balancing comprehensiveness and parsimony Articulating national structures and ‘contexts of implementation’ 3 clusters of variables: Market support mechanisms (Bath, May) Social acceptability and spatial planning (Belfast, November) Ownership and stakeholding (Cardiff, February 2009) Keen to embrace a wider range of voices

Europeanisation Incremental Europeanisation of national energy policies: through environmental regulation; investment subsidies; wrangles about harmonisation; interconnection of grids A marked extension of EU intervention? From voluntary reference values for renewable energy to mandatory targets, set at a higher level

Targets on the share of energy from renewable sources (%)2020 (%) Denmark Germany France Ireland Netherlands Spain Sweden UK

Key questions To what extent are we likely to see growing Europeanisation of renewable energy provisioning, and in what forms? What power is the EU actually able to exert? Who is shaping the content of European policy? Issues for research design, to reflect increased importance of ‘multi-level governance’

Constructing knowledge in the face of uncertainty In the wind sector itself (scaling up, moving ff- shore, bottlenecks in supply) In wider energy policy context (vs nuclear, Severn Barrage, micro-renewables, energy efficiency) Social context In the seminar series: Negotiating uncertainty Using wind energy to illustrate wider debates Final seminar – Limits to wind? St Andrews, May 2009

Conclusions The design of the seminar series is founded on a number of hypotheses We are open to wider feedback and ideas What should we be the key outputs? Time for questions?