This paper introduces the special issue on Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Innovation. It is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in Tramelan (Switzerland) in February 2006. While there are ambitious government targets to increase the share of renewable energy in many countries, it is increasingly recognized that social acceptance may be a constraining factor in achieving this target. This is particularly apparent in the case of wind energy, which has become a subject of contested debates in several countries largely due to its visual impact on landscapes. This paper introduces three dimensions of social acceptance, namely socio-political, community and market acceptance. Factors influencing socio-political and community acceptance are increasingly recognized as being important for understanding the apparent contradictions between general public support for renewable energy innovation and the difficult realization of specific projects. The third dimension, market acceptance, has received less attention so far and provides opportunities for further research, particularly from management scholars.
a b s t r a c tGovernments around the world have adopted ambitious targets to increase the share of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They pursue a variety of policy approaches to achieve these targets. It has been a popular theme for contributions in Energy Policy to investigate the effectiveness of such policies. This article adds a new perspective to the debate, namely looking at the policy preferences of private investors in innovative clean energy technology firms. We surveyed 60 investment professionals from European and North American venture capital and private equity funds and asked them to assess the effectiveness of various policies, in terms of stimulating their interest to invest in innovative clean energy technologies. In addition to quantitative rankings, we use qualitative interview data to capture additional information on why investors prefer some policies over others. The combined analysis compensates for the inherent limitations of a quantitative ranking using generic policy types. The results of this exploratory analysis demonstrate that, all other things being equal, investors in our sample perceived feed-in tariffs to be the most effective renewable energy policy. The overall preference for feed-in tariffs is even more pronounced among investors based in Europe and with higher exposure to clean energy.
This paper reviews major use cases for blockchain architectures relevant to the energy sector and continues with a critical review of issues to study in future research work including as related to energy consumption of blockchain architectures and ensuring a reliable distribution network and security of supply. It also reviews what is happening in the market with relation to smart contracts.
Venture capital (VC) investments are an important source of financing for innovative entrepreneurial firms. The largest share of VC has traditionally been invested in a few sectors such as information and communication technology (ICT) or biotechnology. More recently, cleantech ventures are attracting increasing amounts of capital, with a particular focus on clean energy technology ventures. VC investments in clean energy can significantly accelerate the market diffusion of climate-friendly technologies such as solar energy or clean biomass. While exhibiting strong growth rates and a surge in media attention in the most recent past (see Figure 12.1), these investments still represent a small percentage of the overall VC market.In previous research (Wüstenhagen and Teppo, 2006), we identified a number of sector-specific risks as a potential barrier to increasing levels of clean energy VC investments. Given the important role of regulatory drivers for sustainability in the energy sector, it is particularly important for government to understand investors' perceptions of the risks (and opportunities) associated with energy and climate policies and how they manage these risks. LITERATURE REVIEW Regulatory Influences on VC InvestmentsRegulatory influences can be identified on various stages of the VC investment value chain (see Figure 12.2).Traditionally, research on the linkage between government policy and the VC market has had a relatively narrow perspective on one particular 290
Smart second-generation policies for energy transition governance have been less studied and reviewed in the literature. They are also difficult to compare or measure in terms of their effectiveness with regard to the energy transition, not only because each country’s objectives and underlying drivers for an energy transition are different. Technological innovation and new technology deployment are only the tip of the iceberg. Understanding how to redesign energy governance to allow for business model reconfiguration among incumbents and how to stimulate business model innovation by start-ups and new entrants is key for an effective and sustainable energy transition in the long term. However, beyond this, countries must address the underlying driving forces such as consumption patterns and the financial system. Therefore, business model transformation is not the only solution, but it is an important one and it requires well-designed policies. It also requires the involvement of all stakeholders at all levels of the economic fabric of each region and country. At the same time, we continue to measure progress on energy transitions in a superficial and extremely limited way. Policies must now be smarter, not just more ambitious in terms of appearances, and the measurement of energy transition progress must evolve as well. We discuss the full story of an energy transition to the extent possible in a single chapter. For example, we will review business models in different sub-sectors, policies that either block or promote such changes in each sub-sector chosen, and the elements that are necessary for energy transitions to become successful and sustainable without long-term government intervention and financial support. Finally, we also provide insights from an expert workshop held in 2019 and we outline our upcoming work on an Energy Transition Preparedness Index.
The widespread adoption of fuel cell technology depends on a set of actors often neglected in research on the introduction and di usion of breakthrough innovation: namely, the investors that nance that innovative activity. While policy-makers and scholars have traditionally focused on large, public companies and internal capital markets and their role in the innovation process, a small but growing body of work suggests that this activity may be at its most potent when harnessed to entrepreneurial activity. Research also suggests that venture capital can play an important role in the commercialization of breakthrough sustainable energy technologies-solutions that will reduce dependence on oil and stem the e ects of climate change (Moore and Wüstenhagen, 2004; O'Rourke and Parker, 2006; Wüstenhagen and Teppo, 2006). After a slow start, venture capitalists have accelerated investment into promising energy-related ventures. Less than eight years after Diefendorf (2000) examined why the venture-capital community had lost interest in the sustainable energy market, the emerging segment has become the third-largest venture-capital investment category behind software and biotechnology. In 2006, the cleantech sector contained $US 2.6 B (€1.7 B) in invested capital, representing 11% of all venture-capital investment for that year and an increase of 78% over 2005. The growth in investment in 2006 was driven almost entirely by investments in the energy technology sector, within which clean-energy generation (wind, solar, and so on) dominated the other three subsectors, capturing almost 50% of invested capital. Fuel cell investment lagged behind other clean-energy generation M1825-POGUTZ TEXT.indd 118 M1825-POGUTZ TEXT.
School of Business and Engineering of Canton Vaud -HEIG-VD.
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