ABSTRACT
Several Western countries started to develop renewable energy in the 1970s. The reasons for this development 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 fl ourishing wind-turbine industry, which 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 2,340 MW, and wind turbines produced 15 per cent of the electricity demand. In The Netherlands, the situation was far less rosy. Although ten to fi fteen wind-turbine manufacturers were active on the Dutch market at the beginning of the 1980s, only one remained by the year 2000. Furthermore, at the end of the year 2000, only 442 MW of wind turbines had been installed in The Netherlands, the target for that year having been 2,000 MW.
