Local niche experimentation in energy transitions: A theoretical and empirical exploration of proximity advantages and disadvantages
Introduction
In the face of major sustainability challenges for the 21st century, such as climate change and rising oil prices, there is currently a lot of attention in Europe for securing a sustainable energy society. This ambition requires a transition from fossil fuels towards various sustainable energy technologies such as biofuels, fuel-cells, photovoltaics, wind-energy, etc. A transition refers to a fundamental change in the fulfillment of societal needs that unfolds in the course of 25–50 years. It entails dynamic interaction and co-evolution of new technologies, changes in markets, user practices, policy and cultural discourses, and governing institutions [1], [2]. At present there is a lot of uncertainty how the energy transition will unfold and, whether and how, this transition can be governed.
In the face of this uncertainty transition scholars advocate niche experimentation to play a crucial role [3]. It refers to the creation, development and controlled phase-out of protected spaces for the development and use of promising technologies by means of experimentation in a societal context with the aim of learning about the desirability of the new technology and enhancing the further development and rate of application of the new technology [4]. Translated to policy practice, the Strategic Niche Management (SNM) approach suggests a governance perspective to mainstream emerging sustainability innovations through niche experimentation and consecutive upscaling (Raven et al., forthcoming). While niche experimentation are often enacted in a local or urban setting (e.g. urban transport systems based on biogas), surprisingly little attention has been paid to the spatial dimensions of SNM nor at the agglomeration or clustering effects that may arise in these local contexts.
Introducing the hitherto unchartered fields of economic geography and regional studies, the objective of the paper is to gain a better understanding under which conditions actors that participate in SNM can leverage the ‘regional advantages’ [5] which might take place in these localities for niche experimentation and upscaling. It offers a conceptual synthesis of key concepts in the geographical literature on innovation, i.e. clusters, agglomerations and regional innovation systems, on the one hand, and the literature on niche experimentation and SNM on the other. The usefulness of this synthesis will be illustrated with a case from the energy domain (energy storage in aquifers). The remainder of the paper will first introduce SNM and regional innovation respectively, followed by a synthesis of these disparate bodies of literature. This is followed by the case illustration, after which the conclusions of this paper are presented.
Section snippets
Strategic Niche Management: key lessons and challenges
The origins of Strategic Niche Management can be traced back to the early 1990s. Driven by the observation that many sustainable technologies never leave the showrooms – or worse, remain on the shelves of laboratories as proto-types – Schot et al. [6] and Kemp et al. [7] performed research on early market experimentation with electric vehicles to understand why. Building upon evolutionary theories of technological change the argumentation goes that dominant technologies have become locked-in
Innovation and geography
Studies on the geography of innovation have made longstanding contributions, ever since the seminal work of Alfred Marshall [17], to demonstrate (1) that innovation (incl. technological change) is unevenly distributed across the geographical landscape and (2) that geographical proximity and agglomeration economies are conducive to innovation processes [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]. The popularity of these arguments can be traced back to empirical studies of regional success stories
Adding geography to niche experimentation and upscaling: towards a spatial theory of SNM
To explore spatial dimensions in niche development processes we start with discussing three ‘internal niche processes’ which are considered of particular importance in SNM studies [4], [10], [36]:
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Shaping heterogeneous social networks including outsiders
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Articulating shared, tangible and specific expectations
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Broad and second-order learning
Case study: aquifer thermal energy storage
This section discusses the Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) niche in the geographical area of the Netherlands. It provides a historical perspective on niche development using the SNM classification of expectations dynamics, networks and learning as well as the classification of different forms of proximity. The main data source is data collected in the context of a book project on the history of renewable energy in the Netherlands in the period 1970–2000 [41]. Recent reports on the state
Conclusions
In this paper we have discussed how local niche experimentation relates to proximity advantages in innovation processes as identified in the geography of innovation literature. This literature claims that the locations where innovation emerge and thrive are not coincidental, but that they follow certain patterns and explanatory logics. Such specific attention for explaining locations is not explicitly present in SNM, although this literature makes claims about the importance of experimentation
Acknowledgements
This research has been kindly financed by the Dutch Knowledge network for System Innovation and Transitions (KSI) and the Linnaeus grant of the Swedish Research Council. We also thank Koen Frenken for valuable comments on a draft version of the paper. An earlier version of this paper has been presented at the international workshop on Urban Transitions/Technological Transitions: Cities and Low Carbon Transitions, organized by the Department of Geography, Durham University, and SURF, University
Lars Coenen, PhD, (2007) is Assistant Professor at CIRCLE, the Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy, University of Lund, Sweden. His research is focused on the geographies of innovation and involves various comparative studies across different industries and regions to investigate how local and global knowledge is combined in a productive nexus of learning and innovation. His empirical research has mainly concentrated on clusters in the Nordic countries and
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Lars Coenen, PhD, (2007) is Assistant Professor at CIRCLE, the Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy, University of Lund, Sweden. His research is focused on the geographies of innovation and involves various comparative studies across different industries and regions to investigate how local and global knowledge is combined in a productive nexus of learning and innovation. His empirical research has mainly concentrated on clusters in the Nordic countries and Canada, encompassing traditional industries such as food as well as science-based industries such as biotechnology. At present his research focus is converging around the notions of regional innovation systems and the spatial dynamics of socio-technical transitions in relation to sustainable technologies. He has published over 15 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters covering the fields of economic geography, innovation studies & sustainability transitions.
Rob Raven, PhD (1975) is a full-time Assistant Professor in the School of Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology. He is a member of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST), the Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies (ECIS), the Netherlands Graduate School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC) and the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN). Rob has published over 30 scientific articles in the field of innovation studies, science and technology studies, energy and sustainability transitions. Currently he is leading a number of research projects on sustainability transitions, supervises several PhD students and teaches bachelor and master courses on these topics.
Geert Verbong is an Associate Professor in Technology and Sustainability Studies at the School of Innovation Studies at Eindhoven University of Technology. His specialization is in the field of energy infrastructure and the implementation of sustainable energy. He is a core member of the Dutch Knowledge Network on System Innovations or Transitions.
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