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The Politics of Procurement: Green Industrial Policy Through Non‐Price Criteria in European Offshore Wind Auctions
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Abstract: Auctions have recently become the main tool for the deployment of offshore wind energy. Simultaneously, amidst a resurgence of industrial policy in Europe, public procurement is leveraged to strengthen the security of supply of net-zero technologies and their components. A central instrument in this shift is the growing use of non-price criteria—factors beyond bid prices—in allocating renewable energy development rights through auctions. This article assesses how public procurement is used as an industrial policy tool by leveraging non-price criteria in renewable energy auctions. Specifically, the article asks: Which European countries incorporate non-price criteria into offshore wind energy auctions, and which kinds of criteria do they use? The European offshore wind sector is used as a typical case, as by 2030 an estimated 97 percent of its capacity will have been allocated through auctions. Building on WindEurope’s auction database, a document analysis of legislation and tender documents is executed. We find four categories of non-price criteria, relating to resilience, sustainability, justice, and capabilities. By leveraging this four-dimensional framework, we show that European states predominantly employ resilience measures when integrating non-price criteria in offshore wind auctions. At the same time, the results reveal intertemporal and cross-country variation in the use of non-price criteria. As a plausibility probe, we link this variation to path dependency, changing market circumstances, government composition, and political economy institutions. The article’s central contribution lies in demonstrating how public procurement is leveraged for green industrial policy goals through non-price criteria.
Keywords: European Union; industrial policy; net‐zero technologies; non‐price criteria; offshore wind energy; public procurement; renewable energy auctions
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Vol 14 (2026): The Politics of Resilient and Just Energy Transitions: Institutions and Critical Infrastructure (In Progress)
© Simon Rogissart, Ruben De La Cruz. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.