Socio-technical Inertia: Understanding the Barriers to Distributed Generation in Pakistan

Saleh, Naila; Upham, Paul

doi:10.5547/2160-5890.11.1.nsal

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Lack of supportive policies to promote solar PV deployment, and favourable regulatory framework revealed in this research as major barriers, have been disclosed in other studies as well, although they have diverse implications here. Supportive policy frameworks encouraging the investment in RE, coherent policies [69][70][71] levelling the playing field for fossil and RE to compete [72], supporting R&D, and innovation [27], raising public knowledge and awareness to promote their acceptance and participation, incentivising policies [28,73,74] have been some of the most frequent forms of favourable regulatory frameworks. Though, depending on the political and social context of countries, the impact degree of favourable regulatory frameworks and their absence do differ considerably.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Business in an Oil-Rich Country? A Socio-Technical Investigation of Solar PV Businesses in Iran

Aghlimoghadam

2023

Sustainability

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Market acceptance of renewable energy technologies involves both the demand and supply sides, though the main empirical literature has focused on the demand side under the titles like public, communities, users’, market or even social acceptance. In this study, I focus on solar businesses (niche actors) as the suppliers of solar PV services in Iran. My main research questions are: (i) which factors drive solar businesses to establish and do business in the solar PV field despite the fossil-based economy and energy policies in Iran? (ii) what are the practical barriers to solar business in Iran? and (iii) which roles do Iranian solar businesses play in bringing solar PV development forward? I collected the data via 20 semi-structured interviews with solar businesspeople in diverse Provinces in Iran. Taking an inductive approach (Grounded Theory) toward the data, my results lead to significant insights: the dominance of intrinsic behavioural drivers over the major extrinsic barriers among Iranian solar businesspeople, moreover to their key roles in educating people and driving the innovative deployment of solar PV. This research helps to inform first, policymakers about the existing potential among solar businesses, and second the solar businesses themselves about adopting better business strategies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Business in an Oil-Rich Country? A Socio-Technical Investigation of Solar PV Businesses in Iran

Aghlimoghadam

2023

Sustainability

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“…Lack of supportive policies to promote solar PV deployment, and favourable regulatory framework revealed in this research as major barriers, have been disclosed in other studies as well, although they have diverse implications here. Supportive policy frameworks encouraging the investment in RE, coherent policies [65], [66], [67] levelling the playing field for fossil and RE to compete [68], supporting R&D, and innovation [15], raising public knowledge and awareness to promote their acceptance and participation, incentivising policies [4], [69], [70] have been some of the most frequent forms of favourable regulatory frameworks. However, depending on the political and social context of countries, the impact degree of favourable regulatory frameworks and their absence can differ considerably.…”

Section: Facilitating the Diffusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Business in an Oil-Rich Country? A Socio-technical Investigation of Solar PV Businesses in Iran

Aghlimoghadam¹

2023

Preprint

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Taking a socio-technical perspective, I focus on solar businesses (niche market actors) in Iran. As one of the key stakeholder groups whose business prosperity is tied to the development of solar PV, they play a crucial role in accelerating the energy transition. Given the incumbent fossil-based electricity sector in Iran and the least enabling policies, I am first interested to find (i) the main drivers and barriers of solar businesses; and (ii) the roles these solar businesses play in bringing solar PV deployment forward in Iran. I collected the data via 20 semi-structured interviews with solar businesses in Golestan, Guilan, Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, and Eastern Azerbaijan Provinces in Iran. Taking an inductive approach, I considered sustainability transition and social acceptance theories as sensitising concepts to investigate common and specific points of solar business acceptance in Iran. I find ecological awareness, belief in intergenerational justice, and willingness to innovate, as the main intrinsic drivers and socioeconomic opportunity and tackling the energy imbalance as extrinsic drivers; while the lack of a common vision with the energy governors, and the low knowledge of solar PV among the customers, escalating prices, and challenges to accessing good quality solar equipment are the most prior obstacles. Moreover, I understand educating people, driving the innovative deployment of solar PV, and facilitating the diffusion of it, as the major roles of solar businesses in Iran. I find that the sustainability transition literature overlooked the key role of solar businesses specially in fossil-based and developing economies. My findings suggest that the positive intrinsic mechanisms among the solar businesses, in combination with better-enabling policy frameworks and external factors, like lifting the sanctions and joining the global energy market, climate change mitigation commitments and standards, can help solar businesspeople to lead and accelerate solar PV development in Iran.

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“…Distributed PV and BTM storage business models are driven by policy and regulatory factors (Burger and Luke, 2017). There is a considerable awareness gap in countries where the TPO model is absent (Saleh and Upham, 2022). When the TPO model is translated to fit local market conditions (Ode and Wadin, 2019), it encounters specific local barriers, such as the unclear legal status of the model and prohibitions on the reverse flow of excess electricity to the distribution grid (Potisat et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined third-party ownership and aggregation business model for the adoption of rooftop solar PV–battery systems: Implications from the case of Miyakojima Island, Japan

Yamashiro

Mori

2023

Energy Policy

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Socio-technical Inertia: Understanding the Barriers to Distributed Generation in Pakistan

Cited by 4 publications

References 31 publications

Solar Business in an Oil-Rich Country? A Socio-Technical Investigation of Solar PV Businesses in Iran

Solar Business in an Oil-Rich Country? A Socio-Technical Investigation of Solar PV Businesses in Iran

Solar Business in an Oil-Rich Country? A Socio-technical Investigation of Solar PV Businesses in Iran

Combined third-party ownership and aggregation business model for the adoption of rooftop solar PV–battery systems: Implications from the case of Miyakojima Island, Japan

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