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This paper explores transnational linkages in sustainability experiments. Transnational linkages refer to diverse cross-border relationships and interactions that can complement local, regional and national capabilities enabling sustainability experiments. The paper develops a typology of transnational linkages and applies it to solar photovoltaic energy initiatives in India. Our analysis shows that transnational linkages appear to be almost universal in these experiments. Of seven solar photovoltaic technology domains present in the sample, experiments in only one – off-grid power plants – can be characterised as predominantly domestic. These findings underscore the significance of capabilities, resources and linkages spanning local, regional and national scales in innovative solar PV experiments in India, suggesting similar patterns for other socio-technical experiments. This study contributes to an emerging literature on the geography of sustainable transitions, which argues for a move away from a predominantly national framing in transition studies to embrace a multi-scalar understanding of transition processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the historical development of innovation systems related to biogas and improved cooking stove technologies in Rwanda and Kenya by applying the 'functions approach'. It argues that the accumulation of functions in these four renewable energy technological innovation systems (TISs) differed substantially. We find that the accumulation of TIS functions at early stages of development is determined more by national and international contextual factors than by specificities related to technologies or internal dynamics (interaction of functions). Further examination of the functional patterns of TISs suggests that differences in the accumulation rates of functions explain the differences in diffusion rates, with broader and more balanced TIS functional accumulation being related to higher diffusion rates. The paper concludes that systematic support, including well-directed international development assistance, would enable the development of mature and balanced TISs that nurture the diffusion of renewable energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring modern household energy services is a key focus for national governments of many developing countries and of international development agencies aiming to support sustainable development issues, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. While renewable energy options are considered to have social and environmental benefits, and despite substantial efforts to support the dissemination of new and improved renewable energy technologies, rates of diffusion remain extremely low. For instance, biogas digester penetration in Rwanda accounts for just 1% of national potential as of 2012. This is in part due to the lack of innovation systems, which foster technology diffusion. This paper analyzes the development of a technological innovation system (TIS) for bio-digestion in Rwanda between 2000 and 2011. We apply the so-called ‘functions approach’ in analyzing the emergence of a Rwandan biogas technological innovation system. We show the accumulation through time of TIS functions, linking these to the weak diffusion of bio-digesters. We argue that international development assistance should aim to support to the build-up of technological innovation systems in their support for energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an introduction to and overview of the papers in this Special Issue of Technological Forecasting & Social Change on 'Transition Pathways' is presented. Each of these papers are an output of the PATHWAYS project (EC FP7-funded, 2013–2017) which looked into ways to integrate alternative approaches for analysing sustainability transitions. Methods to bridge across scenario-modelling, socio-technical transition, and practice-based action research approaches (Turnheim et al. 2015; Geels et al., 2016) were implemented in eight empirical and modelling studies reported here. A variety of approaches to bridging emerged in practice, with differing methodological strategies employed, analysing transitions processes across different sectors, at a range of scales, and separately, comparatively or in a fully integrated way. This paper suggests a framework for understanding different approaches to bridging and shows how policy- and decision-making can be enriched by theoretically- and empirically-informed bridging approaches to transitions analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]