Wind energy technology as opportunity for catching-up? A comparison of the TIS in Brazil and China

In a globalized world, emerging economies are faced with competition from technologically leading countries, which poses particular challenges for development. The Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) approach is employed to compare the innovation systems for wind energy in China and Brazil. In both countries, wind energy has recently gained in importance for the national energy system and TIS have emerged to support this development. Researchers interested in TIS formation in emerging economies have stressed the importance of international technology linkages, thus special attention is paid to such linkages between local and global actors as well as to the use of domestic versus foreign technology. Although both countries are latecomers in the industry, the way of balancing foreign and domestic technology and the resulting configuration of the TIS differs widely. In the case of China, the balance gradually shifted from foreign to domestic technology, supported by a fine-tuned and adaptive design of the relevant policy mix. In contrast, Brazil is highly reliant on the inflow of foreign technology, but was successful in attracting foreign direct investment and building a domestic supply chain.