Innovation Perspective
Growing beyond limits? Radical innovation in the energy sector and lessons learned for achieving a 2000 Watt Society
(workshop 1)
Prof. Dr. Rolf Wüstenhagen, IWÖ-HSG, University of St. Gallen
Results:
Have a look at the workshop summary!
Teaser:
There is an increasing consensus that the earth's carrying capacity starts to impose limits to energy demand growth, and that industrialized countries need to reduce their energy use to sustainable levels. This is the basic idea behind the vision of a 2000 Watt society (which compares to, for example, the current Swiss energy demand of 6000 Watt per capita). At the same time, renewable energy firms in Germany and other countries are struggling to keep up with the enormous pace of growth in their industry. Taking the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry as a starting point, we will explore the implications of this apparent paradox. What are the challenges to firm growth in PV and other renewable energy industry sectors? How can business model innovation help to address these issues? Where is the idea of an emerging "energy internet" located between vision and reality? What is the relative role of entrepreneurial firms and large incumbent firms? How do financiers and policy makers shape the course of the solar industry? How can path dependences in the energy system be overcome? And what can be learned from all of this for the even bigger challenge of coping with the limits to growth in energy consumption?
The workshop results will feed forward into an agenda for social science research on management of renewable energy innovation.
Input Statements:
Dr. Hubert Aulich, PV Silicon
Thomas Nordmann, TNC Consulting AG