Presentation about a framework to analyse the policy robustness and resilience profiles of European renewable energy patent leaders

1. The policy robustness and
resilience profiles of European
RE patent leaders
Annukka/The SET team from Syke & VATT
30.11.2017 Hedelmäpeli
1

2. In the beginning was… patent
data
• As a part of the SET project, an extensive RE
patent database has been collected
• Comprises of more than 187 000 inventions
• Can be used for simulations from Patstat
• Patent invention = group of patent applications or
publications claiming same priority, called patent
family
• Each invention is taken into account only once
• Same invention can have multiple patent applications

3. SOLAR energy inventions per capita(million)
(including PV and solar thermal and hybrid)
0
3
6
9
12
15
1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011
Germany UK
Netherlands Italia
Spain Sweden
Denmark Finland

4. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011
Germany UK
Netherlands Italia
Spain Sweden
Denmark Finland
WIND energy inventions per capita(million)

5. BIOENERGY inventions per capita(million)
(biofuels and fuel from waste)
0
2
4
6
8
1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011
Germany UK
Netherlands Italia
Spain Sweden
Denmark Finland

6. WIND power INSTALLATION capacity per capita
(accumulated capacity MW / 2013 population million)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
Germany UK
Netherlands Italy
Spain Sweden
Denmark Finland
Source; European Wind Energy Association (WIND EUROPE)

7. WIND EXPORTS (USD per 2016 Million GDP)
7
0
3000
6000
9000
12000
1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
Germany UK
The Netherlands Italy
Spain Sweden
Denmark Finland
Source; UN comtrade, GDP World Bank

8. The challenge
• Interesting figures - But what to do
about them from policy analysis
perspective?
• The RE policies of the leading countries,
DK and DE, have been quite extensively
covered in the recent literature
• Interesting & possible to take FI as a case
country, too
• Comparison may bring a fresh angle:
analysing the similarities and differences
of policy profiles of the RE patent leaders
• Yet, a suitable analysis framework needed
8

9. Country cases – DE, DK & FI:
Notions on the basis of initial
readings
• Long-term, forceful policy efforts (e.g. feed-in-tariffs)
to drive change towards renewables
• Both environmental concerns and energy security motivating
the change
• Corporatist governments and multi-party politics
sensitive to public interests and values
• Attempts to broaden the circles of those having a stake in the process
by e.g. promoting small scale production (particularly in DK and DE)
• ‘Chosen’ RE technologies well ‘rooted’ in the case
countries (particularly in FI and DK)
9

10. Policy mixes for RE innovation
• Innovation policy mixes often formed by partly
overlapping goals and instruments of different
policy domains and levels of governance
(Kivimaa and Kern 2016; Magro and Wilson 2013)
• Evolving over time (Howlett and Rayner 2013)
• Qualitative evaluation often needed (Kivimaa et al.,
2017).
• Committed, consistent, predictable and well-
designed policy signals important for RE
innovation (Lipp 2017; Mickwitz et al. 2008)
10

11. Robustness and resilience as
policy attributes
• Robustness: adapts to anticipated conditions
and self-adjusts to linear changes
• ‘fail-safe’ within a specified range of uncertainty
• Resilience: adapts to unanticipated
conditions and non-linear
• ‘emergent’
11
(Capano & Woo, 2017;
Nair & Howlett, 2016; Swanson et al., 2010)

12. Research questions
1) How to analyse the policy robustness and
resilience profiles of the European RE patent
leaders?
2) What common and different features there
are in the RE policy mixes of Germany,
Denmark and Finland, particularly from the
robustness and resilience perspectives?
3) What kind of policy lessons can be derived
from the cases?
12

13. Analysis framework (1/2)
13
On the basis of: Swanson et al. (2010)

14. Analysis framework (2/2)
14
On the basis of: Swanson et al. (2010)

15. Questions
• Does the research setting seem fruitful for the
case in question?
• What do you think about the use and
operationalisation of the concepts policy
resilience and robustness?
• Recommendations for methodological
choices?
• Idea to start with a stringent meta-study of RE policy
country cases
15

16. www.smartenergytransition.fi
Thanks!
Comments are warmly welcome!