Comparing the EU and China Wind Energy Policies

This paper examines the driving forces of the EU and China’s wind energy poli- cies change as well as critical problems in practice. Germany is used as a major case study representing the EU. However, this paper emphasizes less on Germany and more on China’s wind energy policy changes.This is because China’s wind energy policy appears to be less mature than that of Germany, and that the former seems to be changing more often than the latter. A contribution of this paper is that the data on China’s wind energy policy is mainly collected from interviews with Chinese central government officials, state-owned enterprises, and scholars. By comparing Germany and China’s wind energy policies, this paper uses a set of analytical factors. They are institutional framework, policy objectives, national government intervention, market and advanced technology.This paper concludes that it is not possible for both countries neglect concerns of both energy security and climate change in wind energy policy-making. Even though Germany is advanced than China in wind power development, both countries seem to face a common future problem in expanding grid connection for off- grid wind. For both counties, grid connection plays a crucial role in ensuring stable wind energy supply for the future.