6. Zhejiang: Regional Renewable Planning and Deployment

In the previous chapters, analysis was first conducted from the wide perspective of centralised renewable energy strategies. Then, the discussion moved to sub-national administrative units, to investigate how Jiangsu Province had shaped its local governance structure for renewable energy in response to the central state’s conscious efforts to promote the emerging industry in a short time. In this chapter, the focus will be on a province with a similar geographical context, Zhejiang, and we shall explore its institutional mechanisms, configurations, actor interactions, and the pattern of local governance in the renewable energy sector. Like the province of Jiangsu, Zhejiang is located in the Yangtze River Delta, and it has achieved roughly the same degree of economic development (National Bureau of Statistics of China 2013). So how does this province, which has a high demand for electricity, deploy its renewable energy, and what is its local governance structure? In this chapter, we shall first explore the socio-economic conditions in Zhejiang, outlining the renewable energy reserves in the province. Then, as in the previous chapter, the maintenance of appropriate institutions and the various actors’ perceptions of the local regime will be examined in order to understand the actors’ various patterns of behaviour within such an institutional framework. Finally, the chapter will conclude with an examination of regional renewable energy governance by comparing and contrasting the two provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu.