Strategic Niche Management in an unstable regime: Biomass gasification in India

This paper analyses the development and implementation of biomass gasifiers in India. Based on literature reviews and fieldwork, an historical narrative is presented starting with laboratory experiments in the 1980s up to commercial applications after 2000. This narrative is analysed using the Strat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & policy 2010-06, Vol.13 (4), p.272-281
Main Authors: Verbong, Geert, Christiaens, Willem, Raven, Rob, Balkema, Annelies
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomass
Biomass energy
Biomass gasification
Commercialization
Control
Design engineering
End users
Expectation
Funding
Gas
Gasification
India
Learning
Management
Renewable energy sources
Stability
Strategic management
Strategic Niche Management
Technological change
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper analyses the development and implementation of biomass gasifiers in India. Based on literature reviews and fieldwork, an historical narrative is presented starting with laboratory experiments in the 1980s up to commercial applications after 2000. This narrative is analysed using the Strategic Niche Management framework. We conclude with the benefit of hindsight that technological expectations where generally too high. The biomass gasification technology is not easy to design and operate and needs to be embedded in a stable institutional set up to allow learning, knowledge transfer, regulation and funding. We also conclude that, in contrast with theoretical predictions, up-scaling the niche suffers from regime instability rather than regime stability, as there is a need to give more security to investors and end-users. For instance through setting clear and long-term condition for grid-connected biomass gasification systems and feed-in schemes. Up-scaling through local off-grid applications where enough technical competence is available is the most likely trend in the near future.
ISSN:1462-9011
1873-6416
DOI:10.1016/j.envsci.2010.01.004