Sustainability transitions encompass changes in existing socio-technological systems. In this context, scholars have emphasized the roles that intermediaries can play for sustainability transition. However, in the literature, the organizations or actors considered to act as intermediaries are very diverse and the concept of intermediary is used interchangeably between contexts. There is a risk that policy makers face difficulties understanding differences among intermediaries and consequently use some intermediaries for unfitting purposes. In this article,we propose to identify the similarities and differences among intermediaries, which are relevant for policy design for sustainability transitions. We base our comparison on three main characteristics:intermediaries’ source of funding, their scope of action and the target recipients oftheir services. Our analysis indicates that these differences have an impact on intermediaries’ short-term or long-term orientation, actor-level or system-level focus, and demand-side or supply-side target. We end the article by discussing the implications for policy design.

The innovation process is characterized by obstacles faced both by innovation suppliers during development and by users during implementation. Although the literature has underscored the importance of collaboration, how this process occurs during implementation remains understudied. In this study, a cross-case analysis of implementation processes showed that intermediary-user collaborations are characterized by different ways of matching users' demands with intermediaries' services, different formal and informal governance mechanisms, and different implementation outcomes. We propose that these characteristics are due to the specificities of implementation and to the particularities of the intermediary-user relationship. Additionally, there are particularities of the intermediary-user collaborations that both facilitate implementation and create risks for its outcomes. We suggest that the link between the implementation outcome and the collaboration process affects user satisfaction, further investments in the technology, and learning. We conclude by drawing implications of the particularities of intermediary-user collaboration and implementation for theory, managers and further research.

The diffusion of renewable energy technologies (RETs) has to speed up for countries to reach their, often ambitious, targets for renewable energy generation. This requires a large number of actors to adopt RETs. Policies will most likely be needed to induce adoption, but there is limited knowledge about what motivates RET adoption. The purpose of this paper is to complement and expand the available evidence regarding motives to adopt RETs through a survey to over 600 non-traditional RET adopters in Sweden. The main finding of the study is that although environmental concerns, technology interest, access to a base resource and prospects to make money are important motives in general, RET adopters is a heterogeneous group with regard to motives: there are many different motives to adopt RETs, adopters differ in how large importance they attach to the same motive and each adopter can have several different motives to adopt. There are also differences in motives between RETs (especially wind power vs. solar power) and between adopter categories (especially IPPs vs. individuals and diversified companies). This implies that a variety of policy instruments might be needed to induce further adoption of a variety of RETs by a variety of adopter categories.

In order for the innovation process to be successful, not only do innovations need to be developed and reached the market, but, once they are available for users, they have to spread on a large scale. In the innovation literature, a complete explanation is lacking of why some innovations reach a phase of large-scale diffusion faster than others, including both actor- and system-level components. For instance, what drives and hinders adopters to decide to adopt the innovation on the actor and system levels, and how adopters who participate in the largescale diffusion handle the adoption process and the implementation of the innovation, are questions still unanswered. As a consequence, it remains unclear how the large-scale diffusion process can be facilitated and speeded up.

This thesis addresses these issues by studying the case of renewable electricity (RE) innovations. After decades of technology development and improvements, RE innovations are now mature enough to be bought off-the-shelf by individuals and organizations. Yet, the pace of their large-scale diffusion is still too slow for countries to reach their RE generation targets and to limit global warming.

Through qualitative and quantitative methods including 59 semi-structured interviews with adopters, project developers and experts in Sweden, France and Germany as well as a survey sent to the whole population of RE adopters in Sweden, an adopter perspective is taken in order to explore the adoption dynamics shaping large-scale diffusion of innovation. More specifically, the thesis identifies the drivers and challenges of adoption during large-scale diffusion and their impact on adoption decisions and strategies. The outcome of this work is presented in a compiling synthesis and six appended papers.

Findings show that adopters are heterogeneous with regard to their characteristics, as well as to the drivers, challenges and strategies that affect their adoption processes. Depending on their perceptions, some adopters are more influenced by drivers and challenges than others and, as a consequence, adopters base their adoption decisions on different motives and follow different strategies to implement the innovation.

Moreover, the results suggest that the dynamics that occur during the large-scale diffusion process does not only come from the actor level and the level of the system where the largescale diffusion takes place, but also from parallel systems, which are related to adopters and their contexts, including both the social networks and the industries they primarily belong. This makes adopters the central drivers of the innovation diffusion process and this distinguishes the dynamics of large-scale diffusion from the dynamics of innovation development and early diffusion, in which the innovation is the central component.

Based on the findings about the adoption dynamics shaping large-scale diffusion, the thesis raises the need to consider large-scale diffusion as part of a new system, different from the innovation system and that acknowledges the specificities of this process. A tentative model accounting for the central role of adopters and for the interactions between adopters, the diffusion system and parallel systems is introduced.

Finally, the implications of these findings for policy makers and managers are put forward. In particular, there is a need for policies acknowledging adopters’ heterogeneity as well as the new challenges of large-scale diffusion. Strategies developed by adopters can be a source of inspiration for policy-makers, who can for instance promote the use of intermediaries, of adopters’ task environment and networks, as well as the formation of coalitions among adopters.

Finding ways to encourage investments in renewable electricity production is crucial to reach a transition to a sustainable energy system. While in the energy policy literature, investments are usually explained by economic or regulatory policies, recent studies have suggested that some investors are boundedly rational and may respond differently to policies. In this paper, a framework is proposed to make a more complete analysis of the institutional demands influencing emerging investors in renewable electricity production. Based on 35 cases, both formal and informal demands were identified and their impact on emerging investors behavior was analyzed. Results show that besides formal institutional demands, emerging investors were influenced by their task environment and by various informal demands which originated in investors collective and internal contexts. However, different investors were affected by different institutional demands. They also responded in different ways to the same demands; while some perceived a specific demand as imposing, others regarded it as inducing. These findings provide a better understanding of the institutional forces affecting emerging investors in renewable electricity. The paper suggests new policies to handle the heterogeneity of investors and opens up for a new panorama of informal policy channels, where network effects can be utilized to trigger emerging investors decisions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract It has become increasingly clear that a transition to low-carbon energy systems, including a widespread diffusion of renewable energy technologies (RETs), is necessary for the world to handle the challenges of climate change. Previous innovation system oriented research has identified barriers to development and early-stage diffusion of RETs, but more research is needed to understand what kind of institutional frameworks and governance tools are needed to achieve effective large-scale diffusion at a stage when technologies are commercially available and new demand-side actors become involved. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to identify the main challenges faced by adopters of renewable electricity technologies under different institutional frameworks as well as their strategies for overcoming them. Results based on a qualitative multiple case study of 28 adopters in France and in Sweden show that adopters were faced with system-level challenges, such as market-structure obstacles and lack of institutional routines, as well as actor-level challenges, such as lack of resources or behavioral characteristics. The study also highlights the difference between blocking and restraining challenges and proposes that barriers are better thought of as challenges that can be overcome. It shows the importance for policy makers to consider not only system-level diffusion challenges, but also to understand actor-level contexts, including the behaviors of adopters who contribute to the transition. A further understanding how new entrants have managed to overcome existing challenges may provide new policy tools to facilitate the adoption for new adopters, for instance by encouraging the use of networks or by supplying specific information to potential adopters who lack it.

While cooperative organizations created with the aim to initiate, develop, and operate renewable electricity (RE) projects have received attention for their roles in the transition to a sustainable energy system, the disparities in the number of RE cooperative projects among countries suggest that institutional contexts may have an impact on their deployment. In order to systematically identify the systemic factors that impact their deployment, we use an established framework, considering the strengths and weaknesses in market structure, infrastructures, institutions, interactions, and capabilities. We compare the deployment context in Germany, France, and Sweden in order to understand which systemic factors have an impact and how they affect RE cooperative projects. Based on a review of the literature and qualitative interviews with experts in RE cooperatives, it appears that, although RE cooperative projects share some obstacles with most new entrants of RE, they are particularly exposed to a lack of financial insfrastructure, a lack of knowledge and interactions, and problems related to a lack of regulatory frameworks facilitating their deployment. Results also show that systemic factors are complementary and dependent on each other; lowering one barrier lowers other barriers, and some obstacles strengthen other obstacles. Drawing on the comparison among Germany, France, and Sweden, we highlight some interesting practices that could be used in the coordination and alignment of systemic conditions for the deployment of RE cooperative projects.

Although energy transition is considered one of the main challenges of our time, little attention has traditionally been paid to the actors participating in this transition, such as the producers of renewable electricity. Previous energy policy literature and policy- makers have assumed that these producers are incumbent actors of the current energy system, that is to say, large utilities producing both renewable and fossil-fueled electricity. In reality, new types of producers are entering the renewable electricity production market, without much (if any) previous experience in that industry.

This Licentiate thesis studies the new entrants of renewable electricity production in order to identify their motives, their responses to policies, and their ways of implementing their projects. This is conducted through the analysis of 37 cases of new entrants in Sweden. A theoretical background, a complete description of the methods, and an overall presentation of the findings are presented in the first part of the thesis, and in the second part of the thesis, four scientific papers studying the new entrants of renewable electricity production from complementary theoretical approaches are presented.

Results show that the new entrant group is heterogeneous in several ways. They have different motives, they are affected by different drivers and pressures, and they are faced with different challenges during their entry processes. Despite that, their share of investments represents the majority of those currently being made in renewable electricity production in Sweden. Based on these results, policy implications are drawn and, in particular, the need for policy-makers and energy policy literature to acknowledge the particularities of the new entrants is highlighted.

Projektet Nya investerare i förnybar elproduktion: motiv, investeringskriterier och policykonsekvenser harstudierat icke-traditionella investerare i förnybar elproduktion med syfte att ge ettvetenskapligt underlag för utformning och implementering av energipolitiska styrmedel riktademot dessa investerare samt vidareutveckla befintliga beslutsstödsmodeller för investering iförnybar elproduktion. Studien har visat (a) att majoriteten av investeringarna i förnybarelproduktion i Sverige har gjorts av icke-traditionella investerare, (b) att dessa icke-traditionellainvesterare inte är en homogen grupp utan består av många olika slags aktörer, med olikamotiv, kunskapsbaser, resurser och nätverk som använder olika strategier för att genomförasina investeringar och som reagerar på olika sätt på ekonomiska styrmedel samt (c) attskillnaderna med avseende på strategier och reaktioner är kopplade till investeringsmotivetsnarare än till organisationsform eller huvudsaklig verksamhet.

The project New investors in renewable electricity production: motives, investment criteria and policyimplications has studied non-traditional investors in renewable electricity production with thepurpose to generate a scientific basis for the design and implementation of policy instrumentsdirected at these investors and to further develop existing decision-support models. The studyshows (a) that a majority of the investments in renewable electricity production in Sweden hasbeen done by non-traditional investors, (b) that these non-traditional investors do notconstitute a homogenous group but rather consists of many different types of actors withdifferent motives, resources, knowledge bases and networks who use different strategies toimplement their investments and who differ in their responses to economic policy instrumentsand (c) that differences with regard to strategies and responses are related to investmentmotives rather than to organizational form or main activity.

Renewable energy technologies (RE) are a condition to reach the system change required for a sustainable society. During the last decade, many policies have been developed in order to encourage the creation and the spreading of these innovations. The problem is that policies focus on quantity goals and do not monitor the quality of those innovations from a system perspective. Meanwhile, policies attract innovation-adopters who lack knowledge and experience about the innovation that they adopt. The risk of a low implementation quality is therefore high among innovation-adopters and supporting them is crucial. Based on the example of the implementation of wind power in Sweden, our aim is therefore to understand the implementation process by studying the factors that affect the implementation choices of 15 innovation-adopters, which we illustrate through 5 cases. In a second time, we study the potential role that private intermediaries have to play in this process, by looking at the cases of three wind project developers. We found that innovation-adopters are influenced by norms and values, knowledge and experience, resources, organizational structure and the local context where the innovation is implemented, during the implementation process. Some of these influences affect the implementation positively, whereas other result in choices leading to a lower quality of the implementation. Likewise, we found that private intermediaries can help filling in a number of the gaps that were affecting innovation-adopters in their implementation process, by taking the roles of knowledge experts, mediators, market integrators and implementation substitutes. Despite a number of unsolved implementation problems, we can see that private intermediaries contribute in better implementations of RE innovations and we end our paper with some policy recommendations to increase the implementation quality of RE-innovations.