56
5 Empirical Research for Establishing the Potential of Renewable Hydrogen …
The second source of interviewees are authors of grey and scientific literature
on the research topic. Some authors have been identified while performing the
literature review. Authors names and contact details are usually made available
in the publications. The author of this paper contacted relevant authors, mainly
policy experts, via email when the address email was available on the publication
or via LinkedIn® following the protocol described above. The solicitation by
email is done using the same narrative as the one developed in the introduction
videos (appendix 2). Two interviewees have been identified with this strategy.
The third and last source of interviewees is the professional network of the
author. The author is currently employed by a company specialised in the development, construction, and operation of large-scale renewable energy projects.
Moreover, the company employing the author has also launched a renewable
hydrogen initiative. An energy policy expert and a renewable energy project developer are identified this way. However, by sourcing interviewees within the same
organisation, the author has potentially created some limitations and biases. The
strategy of the company is not representative from the all the renewable energy
project developers due to its size, its global footprint, and its own business drivers.
Therefore, the qualitative data collected in this setting may lack representativeness. Another renewable energy project developer may have another view on the
renewable hydrogen. To mitigate this potential bias, the author has used the same
interview guide and the same interview set-up for all interviewees.
As a result, fifty-seven (57) potential interviewees have been identified and
contacted with the following outcome (Figure 5.3):
It is difficult to precisely define a minimum number of interviewees for a
successful qualitative data gathering research. The literature defines the moment
where enough data is gathered as the point of data saturation (Hagaman and Wutich 2017). Different figures are proposed in the literature, ranging from five to
twenty-five (Townsend 2013) up to twenty to forty (Hagaman and Wutich 2017).
Other source (Guest, Bunce, and Johnson 2006) suggests that at least twelve
interviews in a homogeneous group are needed to reach the point of data saturation. The author was originally considering interviewing fifteen persons. However,
given the timeframe of the research work and the virtual setting, the target has
not been reached. In total, ten interviews have been confirmed. This implies that
the point of data saturation may not have been reached. Furthermore, despite of
promising contacts and discussions, none of the identified Chinese interviewees
were able to commit for an interview.
5 Empirical Research for Establishing the Potential of Renewable Hydrogen …
The second source of interviewees are authors of grey and scientific literature
on the research topic. Some authors have been identified while performing the
literature review. Authors names and contact details are usually made available
in the publications. The author of this paper contacted relevant authors, mainly
policy experts, via email when the address email was available on the publication
or via LinkedIn® following the protocol described above. The solicitation by
email is done using the same narrative as the one developed in the introduction
videos (appendix 2). Two interviewees have been identified with this strategy.
The third and last source of interviewees is the professional network of the
author. The author is currently employed by a company specialised in the development, construction, and operation of large-scale renewable energy projects.
Moreover, the company employing the author has also launched a renewable
hydrogen initiative. An energy policy expert and a renewable energy project developer are identified this way. However, by sourcing interviewees within the same
organisation, the author has potentially created some limitations and biases. The
strategy of the company is not representative from the all the renewable energy
project developers due to its size, its global footprint, and its own business drivers.
Therefore, the qualitative data collected in this setting may lack representativeness. Another renewable energy project developer may have another view on the
renewable hydrogen. To mitigate this potential bias, the author has used the same
interview guide and the same interview set-up for all interviewees.
As a result, fifty-seven (57) potential interviewees have been identified and
contacted with the following outcome (Figure 5.3):
It is difficult to precisely define a minimum number of interviewees for a
successful qualitative data gathering research. The literature defines the moment
where enough data is gathered as the point of data saturation (Hagaman and Wutich 2017). Different figures are proposed in the literature, ranging from five to
twenty-five (Townsend 2013) up to twenty to forty (Hagaman and Wutich 2017).
Other source (Guest, Bunce, and Johnson 2006) suggests that at least twelve
interviews in a homogeneous group are needed to reach the point of data saturation. The author was originally considering interviewing fifteen persons. However,
given the timeframe of the research work and the virtual setting, the target has
not been reached. In total, ten interviews have been confirmed. This implies that
the point of data saturation may not have been reached. Furthermore, despite of
promising contacts and discussions, none of the identified Chinese interviewees
were able to commit for an interview.