May 2008: A new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) highlights lessons learned from international experience on the promotion of wind energy.The report notes that 75% of installed wind energy capacity is found in just five countries. The report underscores the role of promoting policies to reduce costs, improve revenues and reduce risk for promoters, and the importance of market access and feed-in laws for providing long-term stability and predictability.

The report explores the use of the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation mechanisms for financing wind energy, and concludes that those mechanisms by themselves cannot be the basis for long-term development of wind energy in large countries. The report also focuses on: permitting and licensing; grid access; comprehensive wind energy policies; market barriers; demonstration projects by UNDP and GEF; enabling environments; and an in-depth comparison between the main types of promotion policies, namely quotas, feed-in laws and tenders. [Download the Full Report]