This fascinating study of Chinese wind and solar technologies uses an STS approach to study the Chinese governance of energy transition. It gives a highly original perspective on Chinas transformation from a manufacturing-based economy into a design and innovation country, and raises important questions about the possible directions of Chinas future development.
Wiebe E. Bijker, Professor Emeritus of Technology and Society, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
A renewable energy revolution is happening in China, and this book provides an excellent backdrop to understand how this revolution has come about. Given the importance of understanding Chinas role in fighting the global climate breakdown, Marius Korsnes book is particularly timely and welcome. Wind and Solar Energy Transition in China provides a detailed and well-written account of the conditions within which Chinas wind and solar industries have grown, helping us understand how sustainable change is strategically governed in China.
Jrgen Randers, Professor of Climate Strategy, Norwegian Business School, Norway
This book nicely summarizes the rise of Chinas wind and solar industries, as well as the extensive body of literature that has studied these industries over the past two decades. The examination of emerging renewable energy applications in China, including offshore wind, distributed solar and smart cities, is particularly timely.
Joanna Lewis, Associate Professor and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program, Georgetown University, USA
This book offers one of the first detailed accounts of Chinas distinctive mode of governance of its high technology renewable energy industries. It shows how the Chinese government is able to orchestrate the development of wind and solar PV technology, despite the high costs and long timeframes involved. One element in this is the deployment of future expectations that mobilise investments and sustain the development of industrial capability. In contrast to accounts which emphasise centralisation of Chinese government, Korsnes analysis offers novel insights into the productive role of regional and sectoral fragmentation and temporal delays in these processes.
Robin Williams, Professor in Science Technology and Innovation Studies, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK
In an informative and engaging way, Wind and Solar Energy Transition in China shows the visionary policy goals and various hurdles the Chinese government and industry actors have faced in the greening process of the worlds largest electric power system. Marius Korsnes has written a carefully researched book, presenting a fascinating view to what happens behind the scenes of Chinas low-carbon energy transition.
Peter Karne, Professor, DIST Center for Design, Innovation, and Sustainable Transition, Department of Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark
Wind and Solar Energy Transition in China
This book explores the mobilisation of Chinas wind and solar industries and examines the implications of this development to energy generation and distribution, innovation and governance.
Unlike other publications that focus mainly on the formal policy landscape and statistics of industry development, this book delves deeper into the ways in which the wind and solar industries have evolved through negotiations made by the involved stakeholders, and how these industries play into larger Chinese development and policymaking interests. Overall, it sheds new light on the strategic development of Chinas renewable energy industry, the flexible governance methods employed and the internal struggles which Chinese local, regional and central policymakers and state-owned and private enterprises have faced.
This book will be of great relevance to students and scholars of renewable energy technologies, energy policy and sustainability transitions, as well as policymakers with a specific interest in China.
Marius Korsnes is a postdoctoral researcher connected to the Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities (ZEN) and the Norwegian Centre for Energy Transition Strategies (NTRANS) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
Routledge Explorations in Energy Studies
Energy Poverty and Vulnerability
A Global Perspective
Edited by Neil Simcock, Harriet Thomson, Saska Petrova and Stefan Bouzarovski
The Politics of Energy Security
Critical Security Studies, New Materialism and Governmentality
Johannes Kester
Renewable Energy for the Arctic
New Perspectives
Edited by Gisele M. Arruda
Decarbonising Electricity Made Simple
Andrew F Crossland
Wind and Solar Energy Transition in China
Marius Korsnes
Wind and Solar Energy Transition in China
Marius Korsnes
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2020 Marius Korsnes
The right of Marius Korsnes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-19418-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-19419-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
This book is an outcome of more than eight years of research on Chinas wind and solar industries. I wrote my masters thesis about Chinas wind industry (entitled The Growth of a Green Industry: Wind Turbines and Innovation in China), under the supervision of Hal Wilhite and Jens Hanson (University of Oslo). I wrote my PhD thesis about the offshore wind industry in China (entitled Chinese Renewable Struggles: Innovation, the Arts of the State and Offshore Wind Technology), supervised by Knut H. Srensen, Marianne Ryghaug and Gard H. Hansen (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). And since 2016, I have been working on my postdoc project focusing on Chinas development of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, and the role of energy prosumers in China. When I started out the work on my masters thesis in early 2011 my idea was to cover both the solar and wind industries in China, and I was initially seeking interviewees from both fields. However, I ended up getting informants mainly from the wind industry, and I therefore decided to focus only on wind. That focus on wind is also how I stumbled upon the opportunity to do a PhD thesis about Chinas offshore wind industry. Now, more than eight years later, I have actually done what I intended to do at the outset: write a comparative study focusing on the extremely rapid growth that has happened in Chinas wind and solar industries. At that time, in 2011, China had already installed a lot of wind turbines, and it was far from obvious that China would start installing solar panels as wellwhich eventually grew even more rapidly than the wind industry had done. My idea then, was to try to understand how China had been able to become a world-leading
