This paper explores the conditions of path dependencies and technological lock-ins in the transition to low-carbon technologies such as renewable energy technologies. Both industrialized and emerging economies have been locked into fossil-fuel-based energy systems through a long process of technological and institutional evolution that create systemic market and policy barriers in the uptake of renewable energy technologies. We identify systemic features, that are in fact competitive advantages, such as entrepreneurial experimentation, formation of markets, knowledge development and diffusion, and influence in the direction of search that are critical in overcoming technological and institutional lockins, and in eventually driving the transition to low-carbon energy technologies. The two countries analysed here, South Africa and Brazil, have been locked into coal and hydropower technologies, respectively, for many decades, making the current transition to wind energy difficult. Using literature on technological innovation systems and on technological and carbon lock-ins, this paper analyses the systemic features in the two countries that have been identified to either block or induce the transition to wind energy industries.

Abstract:The paper looks at the localization strategies of multinational wind in emerging countries of China and India. It explains why these firms are localising new manufacturing and R&D facilities in countries like China and India, and how local knowledge and capabilities are being increasingly integrated into global technology and manufacturing networks of multinationals. It explores the reasons behind the localization of MNC that helps them gain strategic access to wind technological capabilities in emerging economies. It looks closely at the case of Vestas in the expanding wind energy cluster of Tianjin in China and Chennai in India. At the strategic level, it explains the importance of the role of local capabilities and skills in the global production networks of multinationals. At the policy level, the discussions leading from the case focuses on the concrete steps necessary to integrate technology and innovation more closely into development of sustainable energy markets in developing countries.

No abstract

No abstract

This paper analyses the impact of government R&D on the macro-economy of SouthThe paper is an outcome of a study commissioned by the