Explaining the Diffusion of Renewable Electricity Technologies in Canadian Remote Indigenous Communities through the Technological Innovation System Approach

Konstantinos Karanasios and Paul Parker
Additional contact information
Konstantinos Karanasios: Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Paul Parker: Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-28

Abstract: This paper applies the Technological Innovation System (TIS) approach for the first time in the context of remote indigenous communities in Northwest Territories (NWT) and Ontario, Canada, to explain the diffusion of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs). These communities need reliable and sustainable electricity to address social, environmental and economic development issues. The study examines the diffusion of RETs during the 2000–2016 period, identifies the systemic and transformational failures responsible for the functional performance of the TISs, and generates insights about factors that have the potential to sustain the development of RET projects. Findings suggest that the TIS-proposed causal mechanisms were present and performed as expected. Since the accumulation of TIS functions influences the rate of deployment of renewable technologies, policy intervention to improve local learning and networking could lead to accelerated diffusion of RETs to the benefit of remote communities and other stakeholders.

Keywords: technological innovation system; sustainable electricity systems; renewable energy; remote indigenous communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/3871/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/3871/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:3871-:d:178082

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().