What makes renewable energy successful in China? The case of the Shandong province solar water heater innovation system

Simon Goess, Martin de Jong and Wim Ravesteijn

Energy Policy, 2015, vol. 86, issue C, 684-696

Abstract: The Chinese province of Shandong, and more particularly its cities Dezhou, Jinan and Rizhao, have established an international reputation of being hotbeds for solar water heating (SWH) technology development and dissemination. The article aims to unveil the evolution of this innovative environment by applying the Functions of Innovation Systems (FIS) approach to the Chinese province of Shandong. It examines the actors, institutions and policy instruments that shape Shandong's innovation system for SWH, the dominant drivers and barriers during the evolution of the TIS and also assesses the applicability of the IS approach to China. It appears that the presence of influential interest organizations and proactive support from local governments have acted as strong drivers for the emergence of Shandong's innovation system for SWHs. On the other hand, the lack of adequate personnel and an overreliance on government policies act as main barriers. With regard to the Chinese specificities potentially detracting from the relevance of applying IS theory to China, we did not find that the central government acted as an initiator of innovation nor that state-owned enterprises had dominant positions in the market. In this innovative industry the impetus for development came from the bottom up and from private corporations.

Keywords: Solar water heaters in Shandong; Innovation system in China; Renewable energy development and dissemination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421515300628
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:86:y:2015:i:c:p:684-696

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.08.018

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().