Abstract
China invests more in renewable energy than any other countries, such as in solar energy. The traditional literature maintains that these government-supported industries are more innovative than grassroots industries such as solar or thermal, which leads to debate. This study uses mixed methods, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to compare the technology trajectories of leading solar water heater (SWH) and solar photovoltaic (PV) firms in China. It concentrates on the following three aspects: trajectories of key technologies, patent citation network, and type of collaboration. Our analyses show that technology trajectories differ significantly between leading SWH firms and PV firms in China. We find that the Chinese SWH firms are core to international knowledge networks, and are following a market-driven innovation mode. In contrast, Chinese PV firms are close to the center of the network and government-driven. Research suggests that grassroots innovation, by doing, using, and interaction (DUI), can create short-term market development models relying on China’s traditional industry model, but cannot create a long-term international leading innovation model; only integrated science, technology, innovation modes (STI), and DUI innovation modes tend to result in international leadership in innovation.
Highlights
For achieving sustainable development, mitigating CO2 emissions requires the large-scale deployment of renewable resources technology, such as solar energy technology [1]
China belongs to the so-called Sun Belt countries [3], with total solar reserves of 1.47 × 107 billion kWh per year, which is equivalent to 2.4 trillion tons of standard coal [4]
We collected patent data from the enhanced database combined by the Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) and Derwent Patents Citation Index (DPCI) databases under the TI framework
Summary
For achieving sustainable development, mitigating CO2 emissions requires the large-scale deployment of renewable resources technology, such as solar energy technology [1]. There is some literature on patent analysis for solar PV development in China [8], but less on SWH, and a knowledge gap exists regarding firm-level [9,10,11] technology pathways and innovation from a comparative-analysis perspective. This study discusses the possible drivers for the differences between Chinese SWH and PV industries’ technology development paths, such as industrial market orientation, innovation modes, and policy characteristics. Answering these questions can help us to understand how China can follow sustainable development pathways in the renewable energy industries.
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