Industrial dynamism and the creation of a “virtuous cycle” between R&D, market growth and price reduction: The case of photovoltaic power generation (PV) development in Japan
Industrial dynamism and the creation of a “virtuous cycle” between R&D, market growth and price reduction: The case of photovoltaic power generation (PV) development in Japan
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DOI：
10.1016/s0166-4972(99)00146-7
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发表时间：
2000-06
期刊：
影响因子：
12.5
通讯作者：
C. Watanabe;K. Wakabayashi;Toshinori Miyazawa
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Watanabe;K. Wakabayashi;Toshinori Miyazawa
鉴于能源使用造成的CO2排放对全球环境的影响，合理使用能源的系统选择，特别是提高能源效率和可再生能源技术，已变得至关重要。尽管日本在开发广泛的可再生能源方面做出了领先努力，但由于可再生能源固有的资源限制，日本在这一领域并不一定取得比较优势。其中一个例外是光伏发电（PV）。光伏被认为是一种“不受限制”的可再生能源，有望作为技术突破克服日本自身的地理劣势。MITI（日本通产省）在其阳光项目下启动了光伏开发（新能源研发计划）旨在通过以下方式最大限度地发挥这些优势：（1）鼓励跨部门产业的广泛参与，（2）促进技术间激励和跨部门技术溢出，（3）引导产业积极投资光伏研发，导致行业光伏技术知识存量的增加。这一技术知识存量的增加有助于太阳能电池生产的大幅增加。这些增加导致太阳能电池生产价格大幅下降，而这种下降导致太阳能电池生产的进一步增加。太阳能电池产量的增加引发了进一步的光伏研发，从而在研发、市场增长和价格下降之间形成了“良性循环”。本文通过对日本光伏产业发展的实证分析，论证了这种“良性循环”作为政策举措的产业活力。
In light of the global environmental consequences of CO2emissions resulting from energy use, systems options for the rational use of energy, particularly of energy efficiency improvement and renewable energy technology, have become crucial. Despite its leading efforts in developing extensive renewable energy, Japan has not necessarily achieved comparative advantage in this field owing to inherent resource constraints for renewable energy. One of the exceptions is photovoltaic power generation (PV). PV is considered to be a “footloose” renewable energy which is expected to overcome Japan's own geographical disadvantages as a technology breakthrough. MITI (Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry) initiated PV development under its Sunshine Project (R&D Program on New Energy) aiming at maximizing these advantages by: (1) encouraging the broad involvement of cross-sectoral industry, (2) stimulating inter-technology stimulation and cross-sectoral technology spillover, and (3) inducing vigorous industry investment in PV R&D, leading to an increase in industry's PV technology knowledge stock. An increase in this technology knowledge stock contributed to a dramatic increase in solar cell production. These increases led to a dramatic decrease in solar cell production price, and this decrease induced a further increase in solar cell production. An increase in solar cell production induced further PV R&D, thus creating a “virtuous cycle” between R&D, market growth and price reduction. This paper, on the basis of an empirical analysis of Japan's PV development, demonstrates the industrial dynamism of this “virtuous cycle” as a policy initiative.