IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iie/wpaper/wp09-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

It Should Be a Breeze: Harnessing the Potential of Open Trade and Investment Flows in the Wind Energy Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Jacob Funk Kirkegaard

    (Peterson Institute for International Economics)

  • Thilo Hanemann

    (Rhodium Group)

  • Lutz Weischer

    (World Resources Institute)

Abstract

This working paper maps out the structure and value chains of the wind industry, analyzes the wind industry's increasing global integration via cross-border trade and investment flows, and offers recommendations to policymakers for the design of investment and trade policies to help realize wind energy's potential. We find that demand for wind energy through longterm government support policies creates the basis for local supply of wind capital equipment and services and associated local job creation; policies that put a price on carbon will further help to make wind energy more competitive and increase the overall demand for turbines and equipment. Cross-border investment rather than trade is the dominant mode of the wind industry's global integration. Principal barriers to global integration are nontariff trade barriers and formal and informal barriers that distort firms' investment decisions. These include local content requirements, divergent national industrial standards and licensing demands, and in particular political expectations. Intellectual property accounts for only a very small part of cost in the wind industry, and wind technology is widely available for licensing. Intellectual property rights are correspondingly not a major impediment for market participation. Credible long-term commitments coupled with a reduction or elimination of existing barriers to cross-border trade and investment are necessary to harness the full potential of global integration in reducing wind industry prices and increase worldwide deployment of wind energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacob Funk Kirkegaard & Thilo Hanemann & Lutz Weischer, 2009. "It Should Be a Breeze: Harnessing the Potential of Open Trade and Investment Flows in the Wind Energy Industry," Working Paper Series WP09-14, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp09-14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.piie.com/publications/working-papers/it-should-be-breeze-harnessing-potential-open-trade-and-investment-flows
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. de la Tour, Arnaud & Glachant, Matthieu & Ménière, Yann, 2011. "Innovation and international technology transfer: The case of the Chinese photovoltaic industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 761-770, February.
    2. Matthieu Glachant, 2013. "Greening Global Value Chains: Innovation and the International Diffusion of Technologies and Knowledge," OECD Green Growth Papers 2013/5, OECD Publishing.
    3. Juliana Subtil Lacerda & Jeroen C. J. M. Van den Bergh, 2014. "International Diffusion of Renewable Energy Innovations: Lessons from the Lead Markets for Wind Power in China, Germany and USA," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-28, December.
    4. Subtil Lacerda, Juliana & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2020. "Effectiveness of an ‘open innovation’ approach in renewable energy: Empirical evidence from a survey on solar and wind power," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    5. Damien Dussaux & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Matthieu Glachant, 2017. "Intellectual property rights protection and the international transfer of low-carbon technologies," Working Papers hal-01693539, HAL.
    6. Christopher Dent, 2013. "Wind energy development in East Asia and Europe," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 211-230, September.
    7. Lema, Rasmus & Berger, Axel & Schmitz, Hubert, 2012. "China’s impact on the global wind power industry," IDOS Discussion Papers 16/2012, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    8. Gosens, Jorrit, 2020. "The greening of South-South trade: Levels, growth, and specialization of trade in clean energy technologies between countries in the global South," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 931-943.
    9. Bolinger, Mark & Wiser, Ryan & Darghouth, Naïm, 2010. "Preliminary evaluation of the Section 1603 treasury grant program for renewable power projects in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 6804-6819, November.
    10. Varela-Vázquez, Pedro & Sánchez-Carreira, María del Carmen, 2015. "Socioeconomic impact of wind energy on peripheral regions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 982-990.
    11. Hayashi, Daisuke & Huenteler, Joern & Lewis, Joanna I., 2018. "Gone with the wind: A learning curve analysis of China's wind power industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 38-51.
    12. Mani, Muthukumara S., 2012. "Assessing the investment climate for climate investments : a comparative framework for clean energy investments in South Asia in a global context," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6211, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wind Energy; Renewable Energy Subsidies; Energy Policy; Global Industry Integration; Foreign Direct Investment; Carbon Emissions; Climate Change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp09-14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peterson Institute webmaster (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iieeeus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.