Rainer Walz

The role of regulation for sustainable infrastructure innovations: the case of wind energy

Regulation is especially important for infrastructure systems (such as wind energy), which are characterised by a triple regulation challenge in the areas of R&D spillovers, environmental protection, and access to monopolistic bottlenecks. A heterodox approach is used to study the effects of regulation, which starts from a system of innovation and distinguishes different innovation functions. These functions are used as a bridge to incorporate the various paradigms of the effects of environmental and natural monopoly regulation explicitly into the analysis. Case studies for Germany and the USA show that despite an early start, the US innovation system has not worked sufficiently until now. In contrast, regulations in Germany provided for a high functionality of the innovation system wind power, which enabled Germany to catch up internationally. The importance of instrument design highlights that the analysis of the interaction between regulation and innovation must be performed on a rather detailed level.

Impact of Strategies to Increase Res in Europe on Employment and Competitiveness

A European RES strategy has the potential to increase employment in Europe. Structural changes and possible income multiplier and accelerator effects may dominate the effects of additional costs on the economy resulting in an increase in employment. Whether or not this impact will be substantial and lasting depends crucially on the innovation dynamics of renewable energy technologies to reduce costs, and on the existence of a first mover advantage for the EU resulting in additional demand from abroad. The empirical analysis performed with patent data indicates above average innovation dynamics for renewable energy technologies. Patent specialization and trade indicators indicate that the chances for a first mover advantage differ between the technologies.

Introduction to low-carbon innovation and development: insights and future challenges for research

This special issue seeks to bring together the fields of low-carbon development (LCD) and innovation studies. It contributes to the debate by addressing how the learning, innovation, and competence-building lens adds to the discussion about the development outcomes of climate change mitigation. The aim of this introductory article is fourfold. First, it discusses key advances in the debate about the role of innovation and competence building in LCD in developing countries. Second, it seeks to add to the debate by paying particular attention to the heterogeneity of developing countries in terms of the context and innovative capacity for LCD. Third, it addresses the challenges to policy arising from such differentiated starting points. Finally, it sets forth the insights from the articles in this issue and the implications for future research.

Different routes to technology acquisition and innovation system building? China's and India's wind turbine industries

Shaping economic development to be environmentally compatible is becoming increasingly urgent. The wind turbine industry has been successfully developed as a domestic industry in both China and India. Important success factors here are policies to facilitate learning and integrated environmental, technological and industrial policy schemes. There are clear differences between the countries, e.g. with regard to the importance of electric utilities, the international focus of the main players and the level of industrial policies to support domestic suppliers. There is not just ‘one successful way’ of developing a domestic wind turbine industry: India has taken a more market driven approach compared to China, where the development is more government induced and is taking place even more rapidly.

Technology-specific absorptive capacities for green technologies in Newly Industrialising Countries

Technological competences in the sustainability fields are a key indicator for the absorptive capacity of sustainability technologies and for the ability to export them. International publications, transnational patents and successes in foreign trade indicate to what extent a country is already able to participate in global technology markets. The analysed NICs can be grouped into four country clusters with different levels of absorptive capacities for green technologies. The resulting pattern shows various strengths and weaknesses of the analysed countries. There is a strong need for strategic positioning of the countries and for coordination of the various policy fields involved.

Eco-innovation in NICs: conditions for export success with an application to biofuels in transport.

This article looks at sustainable development and globalization from the perspective of the eco-innovation literature for the case of biofuels in transport. It assesses the potential for newly industrialized countries (NICs) to develop technology and hence export markets in biofuel equipment. An analysis of innovation indicators suggests those countries that have strong capacities in eco-innovation in general. The analysis considers demand and regulatory factors in addition to technological capabilities in biofuels and complementary sectors. A very large global market in biofuels for transport could develop. The case of biofuels in Brazil shows that demand-oriented innovation policy coordinated with supply-oriented research and development policies can be successful in NICs for developing markets in new technologies for sustainability. Brazil, China, Malaysia, Mexico, and South Africa, as well as Indonesia, Thailand, and possibly India, have the favorable combination of high biofuel production potential and the requisite technological capability to develop internationally competitive second-generation biofuel production technologies.

PRODUCTIVITY EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION INDUCED BY AN ENERGY TAX

In the political discussion, the economy-wide effects of an energy tax have gained considerable attention. So far, macroeconomic analyses have focused on either (positive or negative) costs triggered by an energy tax, or on the efficiency gains resulting from new energy taxes combined with lower distortionary taxes. By contrast, the innovative effects of climate protection measures have not yet been thoroughly analysed. This paper explores the productivity effects of a 50 per cent energy tax in the German industry sector employing a technology-based, three-step bottom-up approach. In the first step, the extensive IKARUS database is used to identify the technological adjustments arising from an energy tax. In the second step, the technologies are classified into different clusters. In the third step, the productivity effects generated by the technological adjustments are examined. The results imply that an energy tax induces mainly sector-specific and process-integrated technologies rather than add-on and cross-cutting technologies. Further, it is shown that the energy-saving technologies tend to increase productivity. This is particularly the case for process-integrated, sector-specific technologies.

Competences for Green Development and Leapfrogging: The Case of Newly Industrializing Countries

The challenge posed by sustainable development is becoming increasingly urgent from a global perspective. The question raised is how economic growth in transforming and newly industrializing countries can be designed in such a way that it does not undermine the achievement of ecological sustainability goals. At the same time, sustainable innovations can also play an important role for the economic and technological development of transformation and emerging economies. In addition, the prospect of establishing lead markets for sustainability technologies adds an additional incentive for emerging economies to move towards sustainability technologies.

Innovation Effects of Energy Policy Instruments in Germany

Standard environmental economics predicts that market-based policy instruments have a much more positive influence on innovation than command and control policies which are classified as hampering innovations. However, the environmental policy analysis approach from political science downplays the role of policy instruments and stresses the importance of other factors. Against this theoretical background, the paper presents the results of two case studies which analysed the effects of command and control policies in the heating sector. Based on these empirical findings, first conclusions are drawn about the role of energy policy instruments in shaping innovation.

Sustainability innovations in the electricity sector

Preface.- 1 Local Utilities in the German Electricity Market and their Role in the Diffusion of Innovations in Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Mitigation.- 2 Contracting and Mikro-KWK - the Role of Municipal Utilities in Germany.- 3 Governance variety in the energy service contracting market.- 4 Cooperation and Shareholding Among Local Utilities - Driving Factors and Effects.- 5 Local Utilities Under the EU Emission Trading Scheme: Innovation Impacts on Electricity Generation Portfolios.- 6 Exploring the Linkages Between Carbon Markets and Sustainable Innovations in the Energy Sector - Lessons from the EU Emissions Trading Schemes.- 7 Microgeneration in the UK and Germany from a Technological Innovation Systems Perspective.- 8 Innovation and Diffusion of Renewables and CHP in the UK: Regulation and Liberalisation.- 9 The Context of Innovation: How Established Actors Affect the Prospects of Bio-SNG Technology in Switzerland.- 10 Identifying Typical (Dys-) functional Interaction Patterns in the Dutch Biomass Innovation System.