The Spanish wind energy rise. Pathways of knowledge creation in a multilevel environmental governance system

PhD Dissertation 2015 Cristian Matti

My DPhil research project analyses the long term pathways of knowledge creation within and across a multilevel environmental governance system. Emphasis will be put in the strategies for pursuing energy security of supply and for supporting renewable industry in Spain by considering areas of technology development and environmental policy through networks articulation.
The study focuses on mechanism for knowledge creation as part of government and industry response to the current multilevel framework on energy and environment. In doing so, this research seeks to identify the major contributors to the emergent knowledge base, be they individuals, research organizations, governmental agencies or firms. Finally, it will analyze the reasons behind differences in performance among Spanish regions.
This research will try to identify key environmental policy and technology factors that contributed to the development of wind energy sector in Spain. Emphasis will be put in the implementation pattern of policy instruments that facilitated pathways to develop renewables energy regionally as well as the extent to which the recombination of existing knowledge and new forms of organization within and across the value chain affected emergent technological capacity.
Theoretically, the research seeks to contribute to the understanding of the development of an emergence sector among a multilevel governance context but putting particular emphasis on interaction and interdependences within and across areas of technical development and environmental policy. It also aims to get a better understanding of processes of adaptation and integration of polices (emanating from higher hierarchical levels) to local context as a strategic response to face new challenges and opportunities.