Wind Energy and the Law: A Comparative Analysis

Wind energy as a renewable energy source attracts considerable interest in the climate change debate owing to its potential to reduce CO2 emissions. Its development, however, faces a number of challenges that depend not only on the physical, political and economic conditions, but also on the legal framework regulating, among other issues, jurisdictional, planning and environmental aspects as well as access to the resource, grid and market. This article provides a comparative analysis of the development of wind energy in selected countries. It identifies a number of regulatory challenges in the specific environmental and energy law fields and points to the necessity of an adequate balancing of positive as well as negative effects of wind energy.