Notions on learning applied to wind turbine development in the Netherlands and Denmark

Abstract

This research investigates how methods of learning influenced the emerging wind power industries in the Netherlands and Denmark. It is found that the manufacturing and implementation successes in Denmark contrast with the relatively poor progress in the Netherlands, and that one of the reasons for this is the contrast in learning mechanisms between the countries. We start from the perspective of innovation systems. Within these systems we place the focus on four types of learning processes: learning by searching, learning by doing, learning by using and learning by interacting. It is concluded that in Denmark, learning by interacting was the most important learning process, while in the Netherlands it was learning by searching. The Dutch wind turbine innovation system was a typical ‘science-push’ innovation system. The aim was to develop large wind turbines at a fast pace, based on the results of scientific research. Because of the lack of contacts between the researchers and the wind turbine producers, the implementation of the research results was problematic. Contrarily, in Denmark the focus was on knowledge transfer between turbine producers, turbine owners and researchers. In this innovation system, conditions for learning by interacting were optimal. In this way, wind turbines were successfully, though slowly, scaled up and improved.

Introduction

Several Western countries started to develop renewable energy in the 1970s. Reasons were the oil crisis and the Club of Rome report, which warned of imminent shortages of traditional energy sources like oil and gas. The renewable energy source that people had the highest expectations of was wind energy. Two of the countries that were involved in the development of wind energy were the Netherlands and Denmark. Both governments gave active support to this development. Furthermore, both countries have a comparable wind regime. However, the result of the development of wind energy in each country is very different. In the year 2000, Denmark had a flourishing wind turbine industry, that produced wind turbines for the world market. Furthermore, at the end of the year 2000 the cumulative installed capacity of wind turbines in Denmark was 2340 MW and wind turbines produced 15% of the electricity demand. In the Netherlands, the situation was far less rosy. Although 10–15 wind turbine manufacturers were active on the Dutch market at the beginning of the 1980s, in 2000 only one remained. Furthermore, at the end of the year 2000 only 442 MW of wind turbines had been installed in the Netherlands, the target for the year 2000 having been 2000 MW.

This research investigates how methods of learning influenced the emerging wind power industries in the Netherlands and Denmark. It looks into learning processes within the wind turbine innovation system: within companies and organisations, and between companies, organisations and customers. The specific research question is as follows:

To what extent did the learning processes in the Dutch and the Danish wind turbine innovation systems differ in the period 1973–2000 and to what degree can they provide an explanation for the difference in performance of the Dutch and the Danish wind turbine innovation systems?