دانلود رایگان مقاله ظرفیت پذیرش نوآوری های انرژی در پرتغال: شواهد تاریخی و چشم انداز آینده

abstract

This paper investigates the speed of adoption of energy technologies in a traditionally innovation importing country, Portugal, as compared with countries where these technologies first started. Data were collected on the growth of eight energy-related technologies, both energy supply (e.g. natural gas plants, wind turbines) and end-use (e.g., motorcycles). The analysis is done in terms of the evolution of the number of units and installed capacity, indicating possible scale effects. The results show an average adoption lag of one to two decades relatively to “Core” countries. However, the growth rate increases when a technology arrives at Portugal, confirming the hypothesis that adoption accelerates when technology reaches new markets. Additionally, the duration of diffusion in Portugal is less constrained by the final scale of diffusion, contrasting with previous observations for the Core. The data also uncover the successful diffusion of wind energy in Portugal, showing that growth took off less than a decade after the diffusion in the Core, and achieving similar levels of intensity. The analysis suggests that this was supported by the improvement in the adoption capacity, associated with the development of a wind energy innovation system. These findings open new perspectives for the spatial diffusion of sustainable innovations.

5. Discussion and conclusion

This paper analyzes the patterns and drivers of adoption of energy technologies in Portugal, including the process of spatial diffusion in a typical follower context. Energy technologies were found to be adopted with an average delay of one to two decades with regard to their diffusion in the pioneer countries. The rate of diffusion, however, accelerates when the technology reaches Portugal – even if the potential of diffusion is often lower than in the Core – confirming the regularities found in the historical energy transitions research (Grubler et al., 2012) and marketing literature (Peres et al., 2010).