Juliana Barbosa, Margarida Fontes, Nuno Bento
THIS IS A WORKING-IN-PROGRESS RESEARCH PRESENTED AT GEOINNO2022 IN MILAN; COMMENTS AND CRITICS (juliana.barbosa@lneg.pt) ARE MORE THAN WELCOME.
The approach used here to examine the co-evolution of wind energy in Portugal and specific industrial sectors has three phases. The first one is identifying the main products necessary in the supply chain of wind energy deployment. Here we have two types of products, those used exclusively in this value chain, that we call CORE-CORE products, in our case the wind turbines. The other kind of products are those necessary but not exclusive to this value chain, such as the metal tower, these are the CORE products. The second phase assesses the evolution of these sectors, individually and in a network context thru the product space.
Finally, the interactions between the focal sector and context is discussed in both directions. Industrial products are here the connections between the deployment of the technology and the industrial evolution.
After having identified the supply chain industrial products at the first phase, we assessed their dynamics in the second phase and interaction with the context in the third phase. For CORE-CORE sectors we consider the international trade and the installed turbines. For CORE products, we assessed the trajectory and connections at product space. In the third phase, the interactions with the context, we first consider the interaction of our Core sectors with the local context by the comparison of the firms turnover by sectors inside and outside of territory and the relative employment. Finally, we tried to see if the dynamics of core products was in a more favorable national context or in a less favorable one.
For the first result, at the CORE-CORE sector, the data show tha Portugal was an net importer and transited to an net exporter. The main source of imports was Spain followed by Germany. When Portugal become into a exporter, Spain was also the destination in the begging and more recently United Kingdom is the main destination of exports. After the ENEOP it is clear an increase in the number of turbines from ENERCOM, one of the partners of the consortium ENEOP. It is important to highlight that it is an international supply chain logics.
The trajectory of core sectors production in shown in the bars, the destination of production in the bar colors and the number of firms in the lines. We observed an increase in almost all sector with exception of electric motors. Besides the production, the number of firms increased also. For the bearings the main destination was Europe and for electronic components was the national market
If we consider the international trade data organized at product space, where the size of nodes indicate if the product is core or not. Then we have a subnet composed by the core product and their neighbors. The color indicates if Portugal is competitive or not at that product at that year, RCA>1. Between 2000 and 2018, we can observe an small improvement in this subnet.
For the first assessment of the possible effect of the technology in the regional context we compare the turnover of the firms by sector in the country in the macroregion and in the municipality where the main industries of the consortium were built. It is clear an increase in turnovers in the machine sector after 2008.
Another way to asses if the context was favorable or not for the new industry could be the diversity dynamics and the novel competitive products in the country. The data show that the time of the launch of the combined industrial and energy policy was a time of increase of diversity and the several new products in Portuguese economy
The set products had increased production and increased companies.
The primary market for the set of products has been the national market, but the European market is significant for some products like generators. The international data analysis indicates industrial spillovers in the product space, considering the main products and their first neighbors.