What drives the development of renewable energy technologies? Toward a typology for the systemic drivers

At present, governments are embarking on the ambitious undertaking of increasing their countries' market share of renewable energy. Political ambitions, however, are just one of the driving forces for energy companies' to engage in innovative climate projects. Energy companies' perceptions of business opportunities are dependent on a set of factors that influence their innovation ambitions. This research operationalizes previous work on the main drivers of the establishment of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs), with the aim of presenting an overview of the typical systemic drivers within a technological innovation system (TIS) framework. This leads to the proposal of a comprehensive typology and categorization of drivers of RETs. The typology is validated empirically by analyzing data on the development of four types of RETs (wind, solar, biomass and wave energy) in eight European countries (EU-7 and Ireland). The study's results shed light on the multilateral drivers behind the development of RETs. Furthermore, a cross-case comparative study reveals the differences between drivers of RETs and the patterns of these drivers in different countries. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.