Interactive Learning or Technology Transfer as a Way to Catch‐Up? Analysing the Wind Energy Industry in Denmark and India

Abstract

This paper uses sectoral systems of innovation framework to examine the relationship between technology policy and industrial development by comparing the emergence of the wind energy industry in Denmark and India. Since the late 1970s Denmark has led the development of a global wind energy industry and in 2004 wind energy supplied 18.8 per cent of Denmark's electricity consumption. India was however a late entrant that managed in a few years to establish itself as the fifth largest producer of wind energy in the world. We suggest that India's unique policy of “interactive learning” with international and especially Danish actors, instead of imitation of foreign technology policies and institutions, was a substantial contributor to India's success in developing their wind energy industry.