Drawing Lessons from Wind Power for Future Sustainable Energy

The medium to long term outlook for global energy supply is extremely challenging, as Chapter 1 emphasised. In recognition of this, many countries are strongly promoting renewable energy, and much progress has been made. However, fossil fuels still meet the vast majority of global energy needs, and in consequence atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to rise towards unsustainable levels. A dramatic increase in wind capacity has been seen worldwide (WWEA 2011), but a swift transition to renewables is beyond reach without major changes at the political and policymaking levels. Even within the EU — which has sought to position itself as a pioneer in climate and energy policy (Wurzel and Connelly 2011) — it has been acknowledged that ‘the existing strategy is currently unlikely to achieve all the 2020 targets, and it is wholly inadequate to the longer term challenges’ (European Commission 2010: 3). Therefore, the need and the urgency to further accelerate renewables deployment is clear. This requires diversification of renewable sources, as well as wide diffusion of existing and emergent renewable energy technologies (RETs). Yet it also requires clearer understanding of a range of challenges going beyond the technological dimensions, embracing the political, institutional, economic and social domains. Social science perspectives have therefore a crucial role to play in understanding and enabling the nascent energy transition.

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