Publications

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Research Summary

Globalization of Wind Power

By: Richard H.K. Vietor

Professor Vietor has been working to develop teaching materials on energy - especially renewable energy. Towards this end, he has written cases on Cape Wind, Suzlon, Airtricity's Supergrid, and Sun Tech. He is currently expanding this research into... View Details

October 2003 (Revised February 2004)
Case

Cape Wind

By: John T. Gourville and Kerry Herman

Cape Wind has proposed placing a 170-tower wind farm, with each tower more than 400-feet tall, in Nantucket Sound. Not surprisingly, public reaction is mixed. Some view the wind farm as clean, renewable energy. Others view it as an eyesore and a desecration of a valued... View Details

Keywords: Change Management; Renewable Energy; Consumer Behavior; Problems and Challenges; Natural Environment; Behavior; United States

22 Aug 2024
Blog Post

LM Wind Power Test and Validation Center

student essays that highlight their reflections. When we visited LM Wind Power’s Test and Validation Center in Lunderskov, Denmark, we saw how they work to optimize the efficiency and safety of their blades through a variety of testing... View Details

March 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Vineyard Wind Starts Spinning: Overcoming Onshore Challenges to Offshore Wind

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

To activate the first wind turbines in the ocean off Martha’s Vineyard eventually supplying clean energy to 400,000 households, Vineyard Wind’s leaders had to navigate the permitting process, numerous delays, and objections from stakeholders in three communities:... View Details

Keywords: Climate Change; Renewable Energy; Joint Ventures; Green Technology; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Massachusetts; Martha's Vineyard; New Bedford; New England

May 2024
Teaching Note

Vineyard Wind Starts Spinning: Overcoming Onshore Challenges to Offshore Wind

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 324-113. To activate the first wind turbines in the ocean off Martha’s Vineyard eventually supplying clean energy to 400,000 households, Vineyard Wind’s leaders had to navigate the permitting process, numerous delays, and objections from... View Details

Keywords: Joint Ventures; Renewable Energy; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Energy Industry; Massachusetts; Martha's Vineyard; New Bedford

Keywords: Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution; Electric Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution

01 Mar 2010
News

Wind Shift

HBS professor George P. Baker, a finance expert, has in recent years become an alternative-energy change agent as well, spearheading community wind projects in Maine. Now on leave from HBS, Baker is the CEO of Fox Islands View Details

06 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Renewable Energy: Winds at Our Back?

When American energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon envisioned the first offshore wind farm lining the horizon a few miles off the coast of the eastern United States, he perhaps did not factor in blowback from almost every angle. Gordon's nearly... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

2025
Working Paper

When Where Watt: Harnessing the Value of Time and Location for Renewable Electricity Generation

By: Vishrut Rana, Christian Kaps and Serguei Netessine

Problem definition: Investments in renewable energy have surged worldwide in recent years, with over $2 trillion spent globally on clean energy. This surge was driven by growing policy support, concerns about energy security, and, most importantly, the cost... View Details

Keywords: Wind Power; Electricity Distribution; Renewable Energy; Profit; Investment Return; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Geographic Location; Revenue; Energy Industry; Utilities Industry

SSRN

06 Aug 2008
News

Caution to the Winds

the octogenarian billionaire oilman, says it’s time to throw caution to the winds — literally. A big investor in wind power (a special research interest of HBS professor... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons

Guest Column

Decarbonizing Economy Requires Lot More Electricity: Big Ramp-ups in Solar, Wind Power Are Needed

By: Jurgen Weiss

The column summarizes the findings of a report prepared for the Coalition for Community Solar Access, which concludes that to achieve New England's 2050 economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals would require increasing the annual deployments of new... View Details

Keywords: Decarbonization; Electricity; Renewable Energy; Green Technology; New England

Read Now

January 2008 (Revised May 2008)
Case

Cape Wind: Offshore Wind Energy in the USA

By: Richard Vietor

Cape Wind is an extreme example of NIMBY--not in my backyard syndrome. This is the first offshore wind project planned for the United States, in Nantucket Sound, just south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Initially proposed six years ago, in 2001, the wind farm would be... View Details

Keywords: Renewable Energy; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Projects; Government and Politics; Environmental Sustainability; Business and Community Relations; Public Opinion; Power and Influence; Energy Industry; Massachusetts

25 May 2010
News

Commencement and the Winds of Change

To give peace a chance, unleash the power of business. That’s Sir Ronald Cohen’s (MBA ’69) idea for one of the world’s toughest neighborhoods: the Middle East. At an event hosted by the HBS Jewish Students Association on April 9, Cohen,... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Finance

09 Mar 2023
Blog Post

Port Esbjerg: Deploying Offshore Wind

globe. Offshore wind power generation is extremely complex, but we identified three key enablers for scaling up offshore wind that Port Esbjerg has put into practice.... View Details

21 Nov 2017
News

Alumni Peer into the Future of Energy

Their answers suggest that clean power will take off over the next decade or so, but hydrocarbon fuels will remain dominant. The E & E Club teamed up with the Business and Environment Initiative (BEI) to host the receptions—one in New... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley; solar power; wind power

February 2017
Case

GE Digital

By: Rajiv Lal and Scott Johnson

Known for manufacturing industrial equipment, GE has decided to invest in software and analytics capabilities to become a digital industrial company. They have also created a software platform that they hope will power the Industrial Internet. GE executives forecasted... View Details

Keywords: GE; General Electric; Manufacturing; Industrial Internet; Wind Power; Digital Manufacturing; Renewable Energy; Energy; Innovation and Management; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Applications and Software; Growth and Development Strategy; Transformation; Green Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; North America

October, 2022
Article

The Economic Dynamics of Competing Power Generation Sources

By: Gunther Glenk and Stefan Reichelstein

Competing power generation sources have experienced considerable shifts in both their revenue potential and their costs in recent years. Here we introduce the concept of Levelized Profit Margins (LPM) to capture the changing unit economics of both intermittent and... View Details

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June 2015 (Revised August 2018)
Case

American Electric Power: Facing the Challenges of Distributed Generation

By: Richard H.K. Vietor and Hilary White

American Electric Power, like most utilities in the USA, is currently exposed to distributed generation and the problem of net-metering. Solar installations in particular have been heavily subsidized, by the state and by regulation, which does not allow grid operators... View Details