Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

216 Chapter 8
growth rates of installed PV capacity dramatically. The main motivation of
the Minister of Economic Affairs is that PV is not feasible, can not
contribute significantly in the short term, and has no industrial priority,
arguments which significantly diverged from the position of the Ministry in
1997, when strong potential of PV was emphasised. Other countries have
developed rather different cycles of expectations, approaches, and policies,
such as the policy of Japan, where the aim is to produce 50% of annual
investments in power through PV by 2030, where capacity topped 1000 MW
in 2004 with 270 MW installed in that year, and where a range of
companies, mainly from the semi-conductor and electronics sector, have
become top producers of PV.
The main point is to point out that expectations, approaches, and policies
have a tendency to co-evolve with industrial and institutional changes.
Liberalisation has introduced a short-term market orientation in the
electricity sector which tends to lock-out PV. It also threatens other patterns
of co-evolution for PV. New sets of linkages between the building sector,
project developers and the energy sectors were created in the development
and implementation of PV, leading also to the build up of alternative frames
of references regarding functionalities. Also private panel owners, housing
associations, and municipalities played key roles in emerging networks.
Proto-institutions as pilots of promising institutional arrangements were
developed and tested, with different ownership patterns for PV-panels
(house-owners or energy companies) combined with different patterns of
yield appropriation and control (Van Mierlo, 2002). Alternative frames of
references were formed where PV is an integral part of houses, rooftops, and
through its positive environmental profile, aesthetical image, and contributes
to the long-term value of the house, i.e. an example of a potential transition
path is unfolding. Power yields and installation costs are part of this picture
but do not necessarily dominate the decision to utilise PV 1 . Yet, the decision
to terminate PV subsidies and short-term promotion of PV is based on the
traditional rationality of viewing and calculating PV as a means of electricity
generation which is much more expensive than other forms, including
competing renewable options 2 . Support for emerging institutional
arrangements and cultivation of alternative frames of references will
however be crucial to realise the promise of photovoltaic solar energy.
1 This emphasises the point that viewing and writing off PV as part of a 30 year investment
in a house and its mortgage, gives different adoption decisions outcomes than seeing it as a
short-term alternative to traditional power generation.
2 The main policy promoting PV is based on the contribution of PV to energy performance
of houses, and the recent sharpened standard for new houses.