The regional facet of a global innovation system: Exploring the spatiality of resource formation in the value chain for onshore wind energy

Onshore wind energy can be conceptualized as a "Global Innovation System" in which resources drive technological development and diffusion: Knowledge, markets, investment and legitimacy. This paper investigates the regional embeddedness of resource formation along the industry's value chain, and explores how these processes are coupled to each other and to the national and global scale. Empirically, the contribution focusses on a well-developed region within the GIS and highlights different spatial patterns of resource formation: Turbine manufacturing is characterized by spatially sticky knowledge and price-driven global valuation. The diffusion of the technology by downstream value chain and service-based firms reveals different processes: Knowledge for turbine management and system integration is similarly footloose and sticky. The regional level is vital for market formation (siting decisions) and technological legitimation (community acceptance). These valuation processes rest on distinct and diverse kinds of knowledge, and are interlinked, customized and facilitated by regional actor networks.