Solar PV and solar water heaters in China: Different pathways to low carbon energy

Urban, Florian; Geall, Sam; Wang, Yu

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.06.023

Cited by 80 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…It has revolved around two major channels of transfer that only played a minor role in the wind energy sector, namely acquisition in production equipment and the movement of personnel [32], as shown in Table 8 & Figure 7. Different from the wind power, the transfer of knowledge from other manufacturers in the form of design license agreements played only a very minor role.…”

Section: Solar Pv Inter-firm Tacit Knowledge Flow Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The aim was to increase the installed capacity of WP farms across the nation to meet energy demand and to reduce the need for fossil-fueled power plants. PV technology was not considered practical due to the lack of space in cities, so the industry was designed for export [32]. While WP technologies are competitive, the specifications are still below those of European firms [83].…”

Section: Industrial Technology Characteristics and Technology Policy mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At that time, consumers were held back by high prices, lack of government support, and challenges of installing PV modules-most potential users do not own or have access to roof space and connecting with the grid was difficult-meaning that solar PV modules would not be widely deployed. Some of these challenges relating to grid connections and space issues continue to be a major problem in China [13,32]. WP needed the home market to give it time to learn and grow through technology transfers and other learning by using methods [7].…”

Section: Market Orientation and Demand Policy Of Chinese Wp And Pvmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparing the International Knowledge Flow of China’s Wind and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Industries: Patent Analysis and Implications for Sustainable Development

2018

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Climate-relevant technologies, like wind and solar energy, are crucial for mitigating climate change and for achieving sustainable development. Recent literature argues that Chinese solar firms play more active roles in international knowledge flows, which may better explain their success in international markets when compared to those of Chinese wind firms; however, empirical evidence remains sparse. This study aims to explore to what extent and how do the international knowledge flows differ between China's wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) industries? From a network perspective, this paper develops a three-dimensional framework to compare the knowledge flows in both explicit and tacit dimensions: (i) inter-country explicit knowledge clusters (by topological clustering of patent citation network); (ii) inter-firm explicit knowledge flow (patent citation network of key firms); and, (iii) inter-firm tacit knowledge flow (by desktop research and interviews). The results show that China's PV industry has stronger international knowledge linkages in terms of knowledge clustering and explicit knowledge flow, but the wind power industry has a stronger tacit knowledge flow. Further, this study argues that the differences of global knowledge links between China's wind and solar PV industries may be caused by technology characteristics, market orientation, and policy implementation. This suggests that these industries both have strong connections to global knowledge networks, but they may involve disparate catch-up pathways that concern follower-modes and leader-modes. These findings are important to help us understand how China can follow sustainable development pathways in the light of climate change.

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Section: Solar Pv Inter-firm Tacit Knowledge Flow Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Industrial Technology Characteristics and Technology Policy mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Market Orientation and Demand Policy Of Chinese Wp And Pvmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparing the International Knowledge Flow of China’s Wind and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Industries: Patent Analysis and Implications for Sustainable Development

2018

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“…grid-connecting needs to be established, legally binding grid connection technique standards on national level needs to be enacted, technique innovation needs to be encouraged and pushed, and PV generation cost needs to be cut. The Chinese government has in recent years put in place a large number of incentive policies for distributed solar PV.However, some of these policies have not been well performed due to many constraints [34][35][36][37][38]. Their main incentives to boost and guarantee the industrialization and large-scale development include FIT, fiscal, taxation and financial policies(see Table 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Successes and Failures of China's Golden-Sun Program

Wang¹,

Luo²,

Kang³

2017

Proceedings of the 2017 6th International Conference on Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (ICEESD 2017)

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Abstract. In 2009, the Chinese government released the policy about the Golden-Sun Program, deciding to provide investors with upfront subsidies prior to project construction with the special funds for renewable energy, with the aim to accelerate large-scale industrialization of PV power generation in China. This paper suggests four indicators used to assess the success and failure of the Golden-Sun Program: policy system design, effectiveness, administrative institution and time frame/development period. The results showed that: the success of the Golden-Sun Program is: fiscal subsidies play a notable role in promoting growth of China's PV market; it significantly improves the efficiency of constructing PV power generation facilities at home and provides clean energy to residents in rural areas without access to power;management and design of distributed PV power generation are improved significantly. The failure of the Golden-Sun Program is: lack of systematic design and effective coordination in policies; institutional deficiencies in policy design; obstacles to connecting user-side PV systems to the grid; lack of effective regulation leads to poor quality.

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“…Research suggests that grassroots innovation, by doing, using, and interaction (DUI), can create short-term market development models relying on China's traditional industry model, but cannot create a long-term international leading innovation model; only integrated science, technology, innovation modes (STI), and DUI innovation modes tend to result in international leadership in innovation.Solar PV and SWH are both low-carbon technologies that contribute to China's sustainable development. Yet, they have different technological, economic, and social characteristics and dynamics [7]. China is awakening to the need to fundamentally rethink the innovation pathways by which the two industries are developed and managed, for more effectively solving development bottlenecks, such as a lack of breakthrough innovations in the SWH industry and a lagging domestic market for the PV industry.This study uses mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches to compare the technology trajectories of leading solar water heater (SWH) and solar photovoltaic (PV) firms in China.This paper builds on previous research by Urban et al [7] and uses patent analysis to examine the innovations of Chinese SWH and solar PV enterprises.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing the Technology Trajectories of Solar PV and Solar Water Heaters in China: Using a Patent Lens

et al. 2018

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China invests more in renewable energy than any other countries, such as in solar energy. The traditional literature maintains that these government-supported industries are more innovative than grassroots industries such as solar or thermal, which leads to debate. This study uses mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to compare the technology trajectories of leading solar water heater (SWH) and solar photovoltaic (PV) firms in China. It concentrates on the following three aspects: trajectories of key technologies, patent citation network, and type of collaboration. Our analyses show that technology trajectories differ significantly between leading SWH firms and PV firms in China. We find that the Chinese SWH firms are core to international knowledge networks, and are following a market-driven innovation mode. In contrast, Chinese PV firms are close to the center of the network and government-driven. Research suggests that grassroots innovation, by doing, using, and interaction (DUI), can create short-term market development models relying on China's traditional industry model, but cannot create a long-term international leading innovation model; only integrated science, technology, innovation modes (STI), and DUI innovation modes tend to result in international leadership in innovation.Solar PV and SWH are both low-carbon technologies that contribute to China's sustainable development. Yet, they have different technological, economic, and social characteristics and dynamics [7]. China is awakening to the need to fundamentally rethink the innovation pathways by which the two industries are developed and managed, for more effectively solving development bottlenecks, such as a lack of breakthrough innovations in the SWH industry and a lagging domestic market for the PV industry.This study uses mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative research approaches to compare the technology trajectories of leading solar water heater (SWH) and solar photovoltaic (PV) firms in China.This paper builds on previous research by Urban et al. [7] and uses patent analysis to examine the innovations of Chinese SWH and solar PV enterprises. Our main goal is to determine to what extent and how the PV and SWH patent knowledge bases differ in China.There is some literature on patent analysis for solar PV development in China [8], but less on SWH, and a knowledge gap exists regarding firm-level [9-11] technology pathways and innovation from a comparative-analysis perspective. According to Hu and Wang [12], 95% of SWH in China has the evacuated tube design. China Greentech Initiative (CGTI) estimates that Chinese firms hold 95% of the patents for core technologies of SWH worldwide [13]. However, academic research underpinning these figures is scarce. To observe the impact of technological innovation on enterprise expansion and market shares, and to provide empirical evidence for policy recommendations, this paper also explores the relationship between sales income and patent degree centrality through em...

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Solar PV and solar water heaters in China: Different pathways to low carbon energy

Cited by 80 publications

References 30 publications

Comparing the International Knowledge Flow of China’s Wind and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Industries: Patent Analysis and Implications for Sustainable Development

Comparing the International Knowledge Flow of China’s Wind and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Industries: Patent Analysis and Implications for Sustainable Development

Successes and Failures of China's Golden-Sun Program

Comparing the Technology Trajectories of Solar PV and Solar Water Heaters in China: Using a Patent Lens

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