Role of Community Engagement in Technology Innovation System (TIS): A case of an Off-grid solar PV electrification system at Umerkot, Sindh, Pakistan
Author(s)
Khalil Ahmed , Sarang Shaikh , Dr. Asif Ali Shah ,
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Abstract
Provision of electricity can bring betterment to any human's life by augmenting up the levels of health, education, social status, prosperity, and technology. However, access to grid electricity is limited due to inappropriate terrain for grid installation and low socio-economic conditions unable to pay for expenses that occurred and services taken. Thus the provision of electricity through gird seems to be an expensive option. When the possibility of grid electricity is slim, the many chances for off-grid energy systems are promoted by many stakeholders. It serves as curative support to rural areas that are already poverty-ridden. Among many off-grid technologies existing, the solar photovoltaic (PV) is advocated for its high potential to generate electricity efficiently with lower means of expenses.
Nonetheless, any rural off-grid solar systems' sustainability often uncovers problems far from financial and operational nature. The mere disposal of such an approach to a rural community requires some mechanism to promote collectiveness and effectiveness, leveraging the community engagement model to foster the system's proper operations and maintenance, impacting its sustainability. The process for any technology from its initiation and adoption to its diffusion is a whole process in itself. It results in new social and economic settings only possible by actors and stakeholders' activities influencing the system. This next-level process from technology diffusion to an institutionalized system is mainly called the technological innovation system (TIS). Studies on TIS have been conducted to discourse the process and challenges of development and diffusion of renewable energy technologies, mainly in developed countries.
Nevertheless, very few works have been put on TIS's significance and the role of its system functions on developing and emerging economies. Based on the longitudinal methodology, this paper attempts to review and analyze best practices and challenges within community engagement and its role in a buildup of system functions inclined to the diffusion of PV technology by establishing TIS around this field in Pakistan. Our case study highlights the broader application of the TIS framework in the context for which it was born. The study recommends a policy involvement in structuring healthy TIS for quicker diffusion and further developing solar PV-based systems in Pakistan.
Keywords
Technology Innovation System (TIS); Community Engagement; Off-grid solar PV electrification.
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