The emergence of renewable energy technologies at country level: relatedness, international knowledge spillovers and domestic energy markets

Abstract

Global sustainable development critically depends on a fundamental transformation of our current energy systems. This paper looks at how countries develop different types of renewable energy technology to achieve this transformation. We highlight the placedependence in the global innovation systems of renewable energy technologies by focusing on how countries benefit from local and global knowledge. We show that both the relatedness of a country's knowledge base, and international knowledge spillovers contribute to the development of renewable energy technologies. For low-and middle-income countries, domestic markets for renewables play a crucial role in absorbing and utilising these international knowledge spillovers. The results provide a better understanding of how countries can acquire new knowledge in renewable energy technologies.

Knowledge flows in global renewable energy innovation systems: the role of technological and geographical distance

“…Countries and regions are more likely to develop new technologies that are related to their existing knowledge bases (Boschma 2017;Hidalgo et al 2007;Petralia, Balland, and Morrison 2017). This related diversification process is also observed in the development of renewable energy technologies (Li, Heimeriks, and Alkemade 2020;Perruchas, Consoli, and Barbieri 2020).…”

“…However, most earlier empirical applications of the TIS concept were carried out within national boundaries (Coenen, Benneworth, and Truffer 2012). Recent systematic empirical evidence shows that countries contribute markedly different new knowledge to the global knowledge base of renewable energy technologies (Li, Heimeriks, and Alkemade 2020;Perruchas, Consoli, and Barbieri 2020;Sbardella et al 2018), suggesting that countries differ in their capabilities for identifying and exploiting global technological opportunities.…”

“…However, these exogenous factors have been under-conceptualised in current TIS literature (Bergek et al 2015). First, knowledge from other TISs may originate in different countries resulting from their distinct knowledge development trajectories (Boschma 2017;Hidalgo et al 2018;Li, Heimeriks, and Alkemade 2020;Petralia, Balland, and Morrison 2017;Sbardella et al 2018). Second, most of the early empirical TIS applications were carried out within national boundaries (Coenen, Benneworth, and Truffer 2012).…”

Recombinant invention in solar photovoltaic technology: can geographical proximity bridge technological distance?

“…This path dependence can be also observed at the regional level: the growth trajectories of regions are simultaneously the outcome of the path-dependent process of economic evolution, and a major determinant of future development (Henning et al, 2013;Martin, 2010;Martin & Sunley, 2006). Inspired by the seminal work of Hidalgo et al (2007), recent systematic empirical studies of regional diversification find that regions indeed tend to develop new technologies which are related to the technologies in their current portfolios (Boschma et al, 2015;Colombelli et al, 2014;Feldman et al, 2015;Kogler et al, 2017;Li et al, 2020;Rigby, 2015;Tanner, 2016Tanner, , 2014van den Berge et al, 2020). Thus, the path-dependent process of regional development is, to a large extent, conditioned by the past economic structure and knowledge base of regions, and hence also place dependent (Heimeriks & Boschma, 2014;Martin & Sunley, 2006).…”

“…Despite this place-and path-dependence regions may still develop new technologies that are less related or even unrelated to their existing knowledge bases (Heimeriks & Boschma, 2014;Li et al, 2020;Montresor & Quatraro, 2020;Perruchas et al, 2020;Petralia et al, 2017). Following the combinatory view of inventions, such novelty may result from a recombination of locally present, but previously unrelated, technologies.…”