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 ,
Download Full PDF Pages: 54-60 | Views: 428 | Downloads: 127 | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4497576
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.
References
i. T. Takama, F. Lambe, F. Johnson, A. Arvidson, B. Atanassov, M. Debebe, L. Nilsson, P. Tella, S. Tsephel, Will African consumers buy cleaner fuels and stoves? A household energy economic analysis model for the market introduction of bio-ethanol cooking stoves in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Mozambique, research report, Stockholm Environmental Institute, 2011
ii. Cherni J and Preston F. Rural Electrification under liberal reforms; the case of Peru, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2007; 15,143-52).
iii. Urmee T, Harries D, Schlapfer A. Issues related to rural electrification using renewable energy in developing countries of Asia and Pacific. Renewable Energy 2009; 34:354–7.
iv. Pakistan Energy Situation- Energypedia. Published in 2016, accessible at: https://energypedia.info/wiki/Pakistan_Energy_Situation [accessed on 20th February, 2018]
v. World Bank. Data Bank, 2017. Available at https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
vi. Dornan, M., 2011. Solar-based rural electrification policy design: the renewable energy service company (RESCO) model in Fiji. Renew. Energy 36 (2), 797–803.
vii. C. Edquist, B. Johnson, Institutions and organizations in systems of innovation, in: C. Edquist (Ed.), Systems of Innovation—Technologies, Institutions and Organizations Institutions and Organizations in Systems of Innovation, Pinter, London, 1997.
viii. Negro, M.P. Hekkert, R.E. Smits, Explaining the failure of the Dutch innovation system for biomass digestion—a functional analysis, Energy Policy 35 (2) (2007) 925–938.
ix. A. Bergek, S. Jacobsson, B. Carlsson, S. Lindmark, A. Rickne, Analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems: a scheme of analysis, Res. Policy 37 (3) (2008) 407–429.
x. Mondal, M.A.H., Kamp, L.M., Pachova, N., 2010. Drivers, barriers, and strategies for implementation of renewable energy technologies in rural areas in Bangladesh-an innovation system analysis. Energ Policy 38, 4626–4634.
xi. Rogers, E.M., 2003. Diffusion of Innovations. 5th ed. Free Press, New York
xii. Antonelli, C., 2006. Localized technological change and factor markets: constraints and inducements to innovation. Struct. Chang. Econ. Dyn. 17, 224–247.
xiii. International Energy Agency, 'WEO - Energy Access Database', 2016, http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/resources/energydevelopment/energyaccessdatabase/
xiv. Zhang X, Zhao X, Smith S, Xu J, Yu X. Review of P&D Progress and practical application of the solar photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) technologies. Renewable and sustainable Energy Reviews 2012; 16(1): 599-617
xv. Freeman, C., 1987. Technology Policy and Economic Performance: Lessons from Japan. Printer Publishers, London
xvi. Lundvall, B.-A., 1992. National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning. Pinter Publishers, London.
xvii. Carlsson, B., Stankiewicz, R., 1991. On the nature, function, and composition of technological systems. Evol. Econ. 1, 93–118.
xviii. Malerba, F., 2002. Sectoral systems of innovation and production. Res. Policy 31 (2), 247–264
xix. Jacobsson, S., Johnson, A., 2000. The diffusion of renewable energy technology: an analytical framework and key issues for research. Energ Policy 28 (9), 625–640.
xx. Edquist, C., 2005. Systems of innovation: perspectives and challenges. In: Fagerberg, J., Mowery, D.C., Nelson, R.R. (Eds.), the Oxford Handbook of Innovation. Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 181–208.
xxi. Hekkert, M., Suurs, R.A.A., Negro, S., Kuhlmann, S., Smits, R., 2007. Functions of innovation systems: a new approach for analyzing technological change. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 74 (4), 413–432.
xxii. Wieczorek, A.J., Hekkert, M.P., 2012. Systemic instruments for systemic innovation problems: a framework for policy makers and innovation scholars. Sci. Public Policy 39, 74–87.
xxiii. Markard, J., Truffer, B., 2008. Technological innovation systems and the multi-level perspective: towards an integrated framework. Res. Policy 37, 596–615.
xxiv. Aschalew D. Tigabu a, Frans Berkhout, Pieter van Beukering, 2013. Technology innovation systems and technology diffusion: Adoption of bio-digestion in an emerging innovation system in Rwanda
xxv. A.H. Van de Ven, G.P. Huber, Longitudinal field research methods for studying processes of organizational change, Organ. Sci. 1 (1991) 213–219.
xxvi. Pereira MG, Freitas MAV, da Silva NF. Rural electrification and energy poverty: empirical evidences from Brazil. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2010; 14:1229–40.
xxvii. Negro, S.O., Vasseur, V., Van Sark, W.G.J.H.M., Hekkert, M.P., 2009. Understanding innovation system builds up: The rise and fall of the Dutch PV Innovation System. Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) Working Paper Series 09, pp. 1–34.
Cite this Article: