228varied project priorities. Wind power investment in China during the period under investigation was sizable; unfortunately, its benefits for consumers were questionable. The real achievement of the projects was to temporarily boost GDP statistics and other indicators decided in state plans. Genuinely sustainable growth, as opposed to debt-laden temporary activity, arises from the production of goods and services that people purchase voluntarily, ultimately facilitated by free competition and entrepreneurship. Real entrepreneurship, whereby an entrepreneur creates a new business, assumes most of the risk, and enjoys most of the rewards, should be allowed to operate in the Chinese wind energy market. Forced construction, on the other hand, wastes both materials and time. It could be that Chinese investments have knowledge spillovers, but as seen in technological output spillovers, this seems uncertain. Even though Less from More: China Built Wind Power, but Gained Little Electricity

229domestic patents are plentiful, Chinese firms have received few international patents protecting their inventions. Large monetary benefits act as incentives for patent protection in large markets like Europe and the U.S. One conclusion is that Chinese firms have failed to create any technology worth patenting.

The Chinese wind power sector has been deeply regulated by administrative practices. Planning was likely the underlying institutional reason for the challenges the sector has faced. Government command-and-control targets for installed capacity—or any target for that matter—may deliver to target but, as in all fairy tales, planners should be careful what they wish for: There may be unforeseen and unpleasant consequences. Capacity, as a goal, leads to construction (i.e., generation capacity) but not automatically to energy. China endorsed construction without due consideration of grid connectivity, thus creating economically unprofitable construction.

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