No abstract

Approximately 1.2 billion people lack basic access to electricity. The United Nations 'Sustainable Energy for All' initiative exemplifies the urgent need to address this issue. Recent advancements in photovoltaic, light emitting diode and battery technology have resulted in the rise of affordable and innovative household electricity technologies, however penetration rates remain low due to complexity surrounding 'last mile' distribution. This paper applies the diffusion of innovations theory as a framework to investigate the 'last mile' challenges encountered when launching a Pay As You Go Solar Home System in a region of Central East Africa. The results indicate that Pay As You Go offers the potential to deliver a disruptive positive impact with regard to increasing access to clean affordable energy for the poor, however, both the technology and business model are more complex than current alternatives and therefore require a much more developed go-to-market strategy. The cost of achieving widespread diffusion is therefore higher than similar products sold at retail, yet this is balanced by potential for a much faster rate of adoption. Finally, this paper demonstrates the applicability of the diffusion of innovations theory as a viable framework for analysing last mile challenges associated with Solar Home Systems.

The rate of transition to a circular economy would largely be influenced by how successfully sustainable niche innovation can be developed and adopted. This paper measures and evaluates the effectiveness of employing a triple helix-based system intermediary as a policy tool for nurturing a niche innovation network in line with circular economy transition. This was achieved through a complete social network analysis of a national industrial biotechnology innovation network, in which the organisation functioning as network manager was innovatively structured as a triple helix-based system intermediary. Through unique access to the entire national industrial biotechnology niche network, a large set of primary data was collected on 13 types of relational ties related to innovation between all 64 public sector, industry and academic niche network member organizations. The impact of the triple helix-based system intermediary on the level of cohesion, presence of cohesive subgroups and centralization of the niche network was empirically measured. As such, the effectiveness of the intermediary in undertaking key nurturing activities of building the network, facilitating shared learning and raising expectations were evaluated. This allowed for the most comprehensive empirical study to date on a niche innovation network and the role of system intermediaries in circular economy transition. The results of the analysis demonstrate the profound nurturing effect that the introduction of a triple helix-based system intermediary has had on the network. In particular, the results appear to confirm the effectiveness of the intermediary with regards to increasing knowledge and resource flows amongst triple helix institutions as well as between regime and niche actors.