Zooming in on a multi-scalar innovation system - The role and relevance of regions in the onshore wind energy sector in Germany (original) (raw)

In this cumulative dissertation, I analyze the regional facets of the multi-scalar Technological Innovation System (TIS) around onshore wind energy. A TIS supports the development and diffusion of such a novel technology. The rollout of wind turbines needs to accelerate over the next years as to decarbonize energy systems and address the climate crisis. According to the TIS framework, the success of wind turbines not only depends on their technological advantages or economic competitiveness. Instead, it relies on an innovation system around dedicated actors, effective networks, and supporting institutions. Their interplay might yield resources like knowledge, market access, or technological legitimacy, which are crucial for advancing the technology. The geography of such innovation systems has recently received increasing attention. Scholars pointed to the multi-scalarity of innovation and the uneven spatial distribution of system elements and resources. This framing paper (Rahmenschrift) provides a comprehensive literature review on the geography of the wind energy TIS. Previous research focused on early system dynamics in turbine manufacturing and pioneering regions. It usually characterizes the technology’s innovation system as spatially sticky. Yet, multiple gaps remain in our under-standing of the regional level in this TIS. These gaps concern the role, relevance, and spatiality of innovation processes in various regional contexts, across the value chain of the industry, and over the technology’s life cycle as the innovation system becomes more established and mature. I address these gaps in my doctoral research. My empirical investigation builds on in depth-case studies about the wind energy sector in five German regions. These studies are mostly informed by qualitative expert interviews and complemented with data from participatory observations, document analyses, questionaires, and a social network analysis. The results are presented in four individual research papers which are the foundation of this cumulative thesis. This dissertation contributes to the research on innovation systems, sustainability transitions, and their geographies. It provides a more nuanced view on how the importance of spatial proximity varies across a technology’s value chain and for different innovation system resources. Furthermore, it highlights and systematizes variances between innovation processes in different regions and how they are impacted by developments at the national or global scale, as well as by shifts in broader socio-technical systems (especially the transformation of the energy system, in this case). These insights are valuable for practitioners and policy makers. They offer potential advice on where wind sector companies and organizations could concentrate their efforts to develop and utilize turbines most efficiently. Understanding the spatial dimension of this innovation system might also improve place-specific policies that aim to build up and support regional wind industries or roll out turbines more rapidly to help tackle the climate crisis. ++ This is a digital version of the dissertation, which has been submitted in print to the doctoral committee of the School I (School of Educational and Social Sciences) at the University of Oldenburg. The disputation and graduation have yet to take place. ++