Fragmented authorities, institutional misalignments, and challenges to renewable energy transition: A case study of wind power curtailment in China

• Published in: Energy research & social science Vol. 41; pp. 71 - 79
• Main Authors: Cai, Yifan, Aoyama, Yuko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2018
• Subjects: Fragmented authoritarianism; Institutional misalignments; Socio-technical transition; Wind power curtailment; Fragmented authoritarianism; Institutional misalignments; Wind power curtailment; Socio-technical transition
• ISSN: 2214-6296; 2214-6326
• DOI: 10.1016/j.erss.2018.04.021

•An analysis of multiple axes of institutional misalignments in clean energy transition.•The distribution of agency and incentives in China’s fragmented energy bureaucracy.•China’s top-down, non-participatory approach is not necessarily more effective.•Challenges to sustainability transition are institutionally plural and context specific.•An examination of clean energy transition from comparative institutional perspectives. To date, challenges to renewable energy transition have been discussed largely based on the cases and experiences from the Global North. In this paper, we aim at broadening our understanding of this specific socio-technical transition by incorporating the case of wind power development in China. Based on the analysis of policy and legal documents, we examine how institutions are organized and incentives are distributed among relevant stakeholders. We argue that China’s significant wind curtailment problem has been produced and exacerbated by multiple axes of institutional misalignments stemming from China’s fragmented energy bureaucracy. Through the study of the Chinese approach to renewable energy transition, our goal is to demonstrate the institutional plurality of socio-technical transition and the context specificity of its challenges.