Measurement of productive efficiency with frontier methods: A case study for wind farms

In this paper, we measure the productive efficiency of a group of wind farms during the period 2001-2004 using the frontier methods Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). Taking an extensive definition of the productive process of wind electricity as our starting point, we obtain results which allow us to identify, on the one hand, an essentially ex ante efficiency measure and, on the other hand, aspects of relevance for wind farm development companies (developers), technology suppliers and operators in terms of their economic impact. These results may also be of interest for regulators and other stakeholders in the sector. Furthermore, we discuss the implications of the simultaneous use of DEA and SFA methodologies.