Emergence of floating offshore wind energy: Technology and industry (P)

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates the construction of strategies aiming to up-scale low-carbon innovations from pilot to full commercial scale. This requires a systemic understanding of the evolution of the technology along with the organizations and infrastructures supporting its development. Technological innovation systems concepts operationalize system building processes, including the establishment of constituent elements and the performance of key innovation activities. The study surveys the national roadmaps published between 2009 and 2014 for offshore wind energy in deepwaters (more than 50 m deep) which inform on how actors expect the system to grow, including the innovation activities crucial to achieve it. The roadmaps point to the role of guidance and legitimacy as triggers of changes in other innovation processes (knowledge creation, experimentation and so on) needed for take-off. The analysis reveals that the growth plans conveyed in the roadmaps are overly optimistic when compared with the time taken to develop offshore wind energy in fixed structures for shallow waters. Several countries have adopted supporting policies following the publication of the roadmaps, but weaknesses in crucial innovation processes (e.g. specialized skills) and external factors (e.g. crisis, regulatory approval) resulted in a delay of the first large investments. Policy should be based on realistic expectations and adequate to the phase of innovation, such as the promotion of technology-specific institutions (standards, codes, regulations and so on) in technology up-scaling. New directions for research are also provided.

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​​HIGHLIGHTS

• O aumento de escala envolve mudanças a nível tecnológico e institucional.

• São analisadas 10 propostas para o desenvolvimento da energia eólica offshore flutuante.

• Visões e estratégias convergem para acelerar a difusão.

• Projetos de maior dimensão, mas também regulamentação e codificação são requisitos para um aumento de escala do sistema.

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(Bento, N., Fontes, M., 2019) “Emergence of floating offshore wind energy: Technology and industry”. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 99, Pages 66-82, ISSN 1364-0321.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.09.035

Global emergence of new technologies: a dynamic analysis of territorial knowledge...

ABSTRACT

The emergence of a new technology is a process that takes place within an existing technological, economic and social context, benefitting from established structures and also contributing to their transformation. Although much research has been conducted on technology emergence, the territorial dynamics behind this process are still underexplored.

The paper investigates the structure and dynamics of the territorial knowledge communities that engage, over time, in the development of a new technology, with a view to understanding how their behaviour shapes the processes of technology emergence. More specifically, the paper addresses the following questions: How changes in the territorial knowledge communities in terms of geographical reach, actor composition and relational dynamics co-evolve with the emergence of a new technology? Which specific spatial and actor configurations contribute the development of new interdependences between existing industries and the emerging technology, promoting its structuration?

The empirical research focuses on wave energy, a technology field that experiences a prolonged emergence process and is still far from commercialisation. It analyses all the wave energy research, development and demonstration projects supported by the European Union (from 1992 to 2018), enabling an assessment of 25 years of technology evolution, including its very early stages. Social network analysis methods support the identification, along different time periods, of the knowledge communities with highest relational proximity, which are territorially localised with the support of GIS tools and further characterised in terms of composition and relational behaviour.

The results show a non-linear process of evolution, but also reveal an increased complexity in the behaviour of territorial knowledge communities, expressed in growing intra and inter-community variety and diversity, both at relational level and in terms of the constellations of actors, with impacts on the pace and directions of technology development.

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​​HIGHLIGHTS

• Knowledge communities in wave energy both transnationally connected and territorially embedded.

• Slow and non-linear evolution, but spatial diversification and growing complexity of communities’ composition and relational behaviour

• Territorially anchored activities and strategy definition at global level shaped direction of technology development, counteracting periods of decline

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​(Fontes, M., Sá-Marques, T., Santos, H., Sousa, C., Nuno, B., 2019) “Global emergence of new technologies: a dynamic analysis of territorial knowledge communities and relational proximity in wave energy” – Regional Studies Association Annual Conference 2019 – 05-07/June – Santiago de Compostela, Spain – oral presentation

Link to presentation

Global emergence of new technologies: a dynamic analysis of territorial knowledge communities... (P)

ABSTRACT

The emergence of a new technology is a process that takes place within an existing technological, economic and social context, benefitting from established structures and also contributing to their transformation. Although much research has been conducted on technology emergence, the territorial dynamics behind this process are still underexplored.

The paper investigates the structure and dynamics of the territorial knowledge communities that engage, over time, in the development of a new technology, with a view to understanding how their behaviour shapes the processes of technology emergence. More specifically, the paper addresses the following questions: How changes in the territorial knowledge communities in terms of geographical reach, actor composition and relational dynamics co-evolve with the emergence of a new technology? Which specific spatial and actor configurations contribute the development of new interdependences between existing industries and the emerging technology, promoting its structuration?

The empirical research focuses on wave energy, a technology field that experiences a prolonged emergence process and is still far from commercialisation. It analyses all the wave energy research, development and demonstration projects supported by the European Union (from 1992 to 2018), enabling an assessment of 25 years of technology evolution, including its very early stages. Social network analysis methods support the identification, along different time periods, of the knowledge communities with highest relational proximity, which are territorially localised with the support of GIS tools and further characterised in terms of composition and relational behaviour.

The results show a non-linear process of evolution, but also reveal an increased complexity in the behaviour of territorial knowledge communities, expressed in growing intra and inter-community variety and diversity, both at relational level and in terms of the constellations of actors, with impacts on the pace and directions of technology development.

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​​HIGHLIGHTS

• ​Comunidades de conhecimento na energia das ondas: internacionalmente conectadas e com forte inserção territorial.

• Evolução lenta e não-linear, mas diversificação espacial e complexidade crescente na composição e comportamento relacional das comunidades.

• Ancoragem territorial das atividades e definição de estratégias a nível global influenciaram direção do desenvolvimento, contrariando períodos de declínio.

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​(Fontes, M., Sá-Marques, T., Santos, H., Sousa, C., Nuno, B., 2019) “Global emergence of new technologies: a dynamic analysis of territorial knowledge communities and relational proximity in wave energy” – Regional Studies Association Annual Conference 2019 – 05-07/June – Santiago de Compostela, Spain – oral presentation

Apresentação