Voldsgaard, Asker;
(2023)
Analysing Renewable Energy Finance as an Evolving Complex System: Lessons from Offshore Wind.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The development of cost-competitive renewable energy technologies has transformed the viability of deep decarbonisation pathways. Nevertheless, the current pace of USD 0.3tn annual investments in renewable energy needs to be nearly quadrupled on average between 2021-2050 to comply with a 1.5-degree Celsius scenario (IRENA, 2021, 46, 100). Scholars have examined the central role of technological learning curves, but the crucial role of investment decisions to deploy low-carbon technologies remains under-examined. This dissertation applies complexity theory to understand renewable energy finance, which makes it possible to analyse the heterogeneity, interactions, and learning processes in the investor community that constrain and enable the deployment of new low-carbon technologies at a low cost of capital. This dissertation adds empirical grounding to the complexity theory of energy finance and makes up for the neglected role of the state as an entrepreneurial investor in energy technology. The dissertation uses offshore wind as a case by studying all investment deals from the first park commissioned in 1991 to the end of 2021 with an investment database compiled for the dissertation. Complexity theory and the fine-grained data material enable a longitudinal study of how investment patterns have evolved over the entire lifetime of a low-carbon technology. It, thereby, contributes towards an empirically grounded theory of how finance and investment influence sustainability transitions. The social network analysis and qualitative accounts of the interactions among investors reveal how offshore wind financing evolved as a complex system through five phases. It also shows how entrepreneurial state investors, including utility companies and investment banks, have been decisive in shaping the evolution towards a mature private investor community. These insights are used to propose a conceptual framework for integrating the role of finance into sustainability transition research and a policy framework for how public investments can be used in financial system governance.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Analysing Renewable Energy Finance as an Evolving Complex System: Lessons from Offshore Wind |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2023. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Inst for Innovation and Public Purpose |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10170872 |
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