technologies while providing advanced management options to grid operators and
end users. Such flexibility and control are not unlike the sort that emerged with
digitized communication networks. Given time and broad deployment, the smart
grid could change the way we think about energy, create new commercial oppor -
tunities and improve the economics of renewable energy by establishing new tools
for optimal energy supply management and demand response.
Were it not for the commitments of governments around the world to R&D
and the diffusion of technologies like wind turbines and solar PV panels, the energy
transformation taking off in the last decade would not have occurred. The ‘push’
has required major regulatory shifts, financial commitments and long-term support
for emerging companies. It is not always clear how to connect the dots between
dominant firms and their technologies and the efforts of governments around the
world, but it is clear that no leading clean technology firm emerged from a pure
‘market genesis’ – that is, as if the State played no role at all.
The apparent willingness of the State to accept the risk of clean technology
development has had a positive impact. In the last few decades, wind turbines and
solar PV panels have been two of the most rapidly deployed renewable energy
technologies on the planet, spawning growing industries that are emerging in many
regions of the world. In 2008, US$194 billion was directed at emerging clean
technologies in an effort to provide badly needed economic stimulus to counteract
the global economic crisis (NSB, 2012, p62). An unofficial global ‘agreement’ was
thus reached out of the economic crisis, and that agreement was that the time for
clean technologies had come (again). A green energy revolution seemed to be within
the realm of possibility – but such ‘green transformation’ is yet to be seen.
Widescale deployment of solar PV panels and wind turbines are two techno -
logical solutions for meeting future energy needs and mitigating climate change.
The ‘ecosystem’ of innovation in clean technology is one in which the public sector
has taken the leading role. Wind and solar power technologies have been the fruit
of major government investments that catalyzed their historical development
around the world.
While the US and China possesses the largest quantity of wind capacity deployed
worldwide, Denmark produced the leading manufacturer of wind turbines decades
ago: Vestas (Morales, 2014). In the US, leading manufacturers also emerged during
the 1980s, but each was lost through acquisition or bankruptcy. Germany’s solar
resources are inferior to those of the United States, yet it remains the world leader
of deployed solar PV power. China has emerged as the world’s major solar PV
manufacturing region, successfully out-competing US, Japanese and European rivals
that led in prior decades (Zhang et al., 2014, p904).
What must be explained is how a country like the US can become a leading
market, but fail to produce a leading manufacturer, and conversely, how a country
like China can produce a leading manufacturer in the absence (until recently) of
a domestic market. What distinguishes these nations has nothing to do with their
‘comparative advantages’ as producers of wind turbines or solar PV panels, and
The green entrepreneurial state 145
end users. Such flexibility and control are not unlike the sort that emerged with
digitized communication networks. Given time and broad deployment, the smart
grid could change the way we think about energy, create new commercial oppor -
tunities and improve the economics of renewable energy by establishing new tools
for optimal energy supply management and demand response.
Were it not for the commitments of governments around the world to R&D
and the diffusion of technologies like wind turbines and solar PV panels, the energy
transformation taking off in the last decade would not have occurred. The ‘push’
has required major regulatory shifts, financial commitments and long-term support
for emerging companies. It is not always clear how to connect the dots between
dominant firms and their technologies and the efforts of governments around the
world, but it is clear that no leading clean technology firm emerged from a pure
‘market genesis’ – that is, as if the State played no role at all.
The apparent willingness of the State to accept the risk of clean technology
development has had a positive impact. In the last few decades, wind turbines and
solar PV panels have been two of the most rapidly deployed renewable energy
technologies on the planet, spawning growing industries that are emerging in many
regions of the world. In 2008, US$194 billion was directed at emerging clean
technologies in an effort to provide badly needed economic stimulus to counteract
the global economic crisis (NSB, 2012, p62). An unofficial global ‘agreement’ was
thus reached out of the economic crisis, and that agreement was that the time for
clean technologies had come (again). A green energy revolution seemed to be within
the realm of possibility – but such ‘green transformation’ is yet to be seen.
Widescale deployment of solar PV panels and wind turbines are two techno -
logical solutions for meeting future energy needs and mitigating climate change.
The ‘ecosystem’ of innovation in clean technology is one in which the public sector
has taken the leading role. Wind and solar power technologies have been the fruit
of major government investments that catalyzed their historical development
around the world.
While the US and China possesses the largest quantity of wind capacity deployed
worldwide, Denmark produced the leading manufacturer of wind turbines decades
ago: Vestas (Morales, 2014). In the US, leading manufacturers also emerged during
the 1980s, but each was lost through acquisition or bankruptcy. Germany’s solar
resources are inferior to those of the United States, yet it remains the world leader
of deployed solar PV power. China has emerged as the world’s major solar PV
manufacturing region, successfully out-competing US, Japanese and European rivals
that led in prior decades (Zhang et al., 2014, p904).
What must be explained is how a country like the US can become a leading
market, but fail to produce a leading manufacturer, and conversely, how a country
like China can produce a leading manufacturer in the absence (until recently) of
a domestic market. What distinguishes these nations has nothing to do with their
‘comparative advantages’ as producers of wind turbines or solar PV panels, and
The green entrepreneurial state 145