The German Wind Energy Lobby: How to successfully promote costly technological change

Arbeitspapier

German wind power development is a technological success story but has involved very high subsidies. Germany was a latecomer in wind power but specific political conditions in the late 1980s and early 1990s allowed the implementation of the feed in tariff regime which has characterised Germany ever since. The wind lobby managed to constitute itself at an early stage and to develop stable alliances with farmers and regional policymakers. The concentration of the wind industry in structurally weak regions reinforced these links. With an increased visibility of the subsidies and saturation of onshore sites in the early 2000s, the lobby has been less successful in retaining support. The current attempt to develop offshore projects may suffer from less favourable interest constellations.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: HWWA Discussion Paper ; No. 296

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Alternative Energy Sources ; Environmental Economics: Government Policy ; Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
• Subject: Wind power ; interest groups ; technological change ; Windenergie ; Windkraftanlage ; Interessenpolitik ; Förderung regenerativer Energien ; Subvention ; Erfolgsfaktor ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Michaelowa, Axel
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA)
• (where): Hamburg
• (when): 2004

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/19268
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET