This study aimed to identify the most important changes in Norwegian wind power policies from 1990 through 2012, and to explain the processes that led to these changes. The goal of the study was to understand the reason for the sudden growth in produced wind power at the beginning of the 2000s. A literature and document analysis in addition to 16 interviews was performed to investigate the topic. The analysis identified three significant changes in policy that could be connected to the growth in produced wind power. The first policy change was a goal set in 1999 to produce three TWh wind power annually by 2010. The second was the establishment of the public enterprise Enova in 2001. The third was the implementation of the green certificate scheme in 2012. The policy changes have been analysed using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), and four separate advocacy coalitions with different views on Norwegian wind power were identified. Wind power and support mechanisms for renewable energy were set on the political agenda due to advocacy from three of these coalitions. These coalitions consisted primarily of representatives from the renewable energy industry as well as from energy and environmental NGOs. A fourth coalition, mainly made up of economists from the central government administration and academia, was found to weaken the other coalitions’ advocacy through vested interests and an uneven distribution of power. External system events nevertheless created leeway for policy change by rearranging the coalitions’ resources and power in negotiations. Here the change of government in 1997 was of significance to the three TWh goal and the establishment of Enova, while the second EU Renewable Directive and the regulation of state aid in the EEA Agreement were key reasons for the establishment of the green certificate market.