From lagging to leading? Technological innovation systems in emerging economies and the case of Chinese wind power

Abstract

The TIS framework was adapted to suit emerging economy case studies. China's wind power TIS is emerging vis-à-vis the global forefront. China's wind power TIS has reduced its dependence on foreign knowledge and finance. Chinese innovative activity for wind power remains limited to the domestic context. Foreign market expansion requires a focus on turbine quality and certification. a r t i c l e i n f o t r a c tThere is increasing attention for the contribution of emerging economies to global innovation, including innovation of renewable energy technologies. The Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) framework presents a list of system functions for the analysis of the development of a technology. It has often been applied to renewable energy technologies, but with a strong focus on advanced economies. In this paper, we elaborate on emerging economy innovation system formation, structured according to TIS functions. Rather than analysing development of the technology, we analyse the development of the Chinese TIS vis-à-vis the global forefront. Key to this notion is that TIS, especially for clean-tech, are transnational phenomena. Lagging TIS depend on the global TIS, whereas leading TIS contribute to its formation. It is concluded that China has reduced its dependence on foreign knowledge and investment, but the outward contribution remains limited. The main challenge to foreign market expansion lies in reforming the domestic TIS to focus on turbine quality rather than cost reduction. Demonstration projects are needed, especially for large capacity and offshore turbine models, in order to build up operational history and get quality certification.

Firm-level technology transfer and technology cooperation for wind energy between Europe, China and India: From North–South to South–North cooperation?

“…Current literature highlights how historically Asian and European wind firms were engaged in different forms of technology transfer and technology cooperation and how Asian wind firms are increasingly catching up (e.g. Lewis, 2013;Gosens and Lu, 2013;Lema and Lema, 2013;Lema and Lema, 2012;Schmitz and Lema, 2013;Dai et al, 2014). Some literature also mentions how more recently Chinese, India and European wind energy firms are engaged in a complex set of technology cooperations (e.g.…”

International Diffusion of Renewable Energy Innovations: Lessons from the Lead Markets for Wind Power in China, Germany and USA

“…Moreover, the ability of a country to develop a market earlier than others opens up the possibility of shaping foreign markets and benefiting from foreign demands [30]. Following previous studies (e.g., [43][44][45]), we use installed capacity and installation costs as indicators of domestic market advantage. We employ costs instead of prices to enable the comparison among the three countries.…”

“…The contribution of domestic demand for the wind power industry development has been acknowledged by different studies (e.g., [44][45][46][47]). Growing demand in protected domestic markets creates opportunities for experimentation and testing, as well as for cost reduction through learning-by-doing and economies of scale [2,48].…”

“…An important reason for low prices of wind power systems in China until now has been low turbine efficiency. The Chinese market suffers from weak incentives to efficiency improvements due to the measurement of the renewable portfolio standard in kW of generation capacity, rather than realized production, and high levels of curtailment [45]. Figure 2) is the development of new turbine designs to improve adaptation to local wind conditions.…”

Analysis on the industrial performance of wind power in China

“…In recent years, large numbers of scholars researched the China's wind power industry from different aspects, such as wind power price and policy [Ping Lu, 2013 Gosens, 2013]. The research literatures of China's wind Power industry have been comprehensive.…”