Technology Life-Cycles in the Energy Sector – Technological Characteristics and the Role of Deployment for Innovation

43 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2015

See all articles by Joern Huenteler

Joern Huenteler

Harvard University, Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA) ; ETH Zurich - Department of Management, Technology and Economics

Tobias Schmidt

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS)

Jan Ossenbrink

ETH Zürich

Volker H. Hoffmann

ETH Zürich

Date Written: February 17, 2015

Abstract

Understanding the long-term patterns of innovation in energy technologies is crucial to informing public policy planning in the context of climate change. This paper analyzes which of two common models of innovation over the technology life-cycle – the product-process innovation shift observed for mass-produced goods or the system-component shift observed for complex products and systems – best describes the pattern of innovation in energy technologies. To this end, we develop a novel, patent-based methodology to study how the focus of innovation changes over the course of the technology life-cycle. Specifically, we analyze patent-citation networks in solar PV and wind power in the period 1963-2009. The results suggest that solar PV technology followed the life-cycle pattern of mass-produced goods: early product innovations were followed by a surge of process innovations in solar cell production. Wind turbine technology, by contrast, more closely resembled the life-cycle of complex products and systems: the focus of innovative activity shifted over time through different parts of the product, rather than from product to process innovations. These findings point to very different innovation and learning processes in the two technologies and the need to tailor technology policy to technological characteristics. They also help conceptualize previously inconclusive evidence about the impact of technology policies in the past.

Keywords: Technology life-cycle, Energy technology, Patents, Citation-network analysis, Wind power, Solar PV

JEL Classification: O31, O32, O38, D83

Suggested Citation

Huenteler, Joern and Schmidt, Tobias and Ossenbrink, Jan and Hoffmann, Volker H., Technology Life-Cycles in the Energy Sector – Technological Characteristics and the Role of Deployment for Innovation (February 17, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2566463 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2566463

Joern Huenteler (Contact Author)

Harvard University, Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA) ( email )

79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

ETH Zurich - Department of Management, Technology and Economics ( email )

Tobias Schmidt

ETH Zürich - Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (GESS) ( email )

ETH-Zentrum SEW E 26
CH-8092 Zurich, Zurich 8006
Switzerland

Jan Ossenbrink

ETH Zürich ( email )

Weinbergstrasse 56/58
WEV J 419
Zürich, 8092
Switzerland

Volker H. Hoffmann

ETH Zürich ( email )

Zürichbergstrasse 18
8092 Zurich, CH-1015
Switzerland

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