The formation of feed-in tariffs and the emergence of wind power in Finnish routine corporatism: favoring the economics of large-scale energy production

ABSTRACT

We explore the role and influence of the Finnish energy elite’s inner circle in the process of transition to renewable energy. Finland is a corporatist country where economic interest groups have privileged access to government decision-making circles. These dense networks reproduce decades-long energy policy structures that have always favored centralized electricity production, a model now implemented in renewable energy production. We address the formation of feed-in tariffs (FITs, a government subsidy for electricity produced by renewable energy) in Finland’s routine corporatist system between 2006 and 2011. The views of inner-circle actors expressed in formal government documents correspond to legislative outcomes regarding FITs. They preferred market-based solutions and cost-efficiency and transferred the costs of FITs to the state budget, which benefited large companies. This was partly possible because Finland’s corporatist energy policy model excludes non-inner-circle actors. Nevertheless, FITs have enabled the growing significance of wind power.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporatism
• energy policy
• FITs
• wind power
• elite players

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Strategic Research Council  at the Academy of Finland [313013, 313015].