Role of technology transfer for development of renewable energy sector

Tuesday, 20 January 2015 00:48 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Energy is undoubtedly the basic need for continuity of economic development and human welfare. In modern societies, electrical energy proves to be one of the crucial forms of energy used by human in manufacturing products and providing service. As the human societies grow, the amount of electricity usage grows as well. It is projected that the world electricity usage will reach 32,922TW-hours by 2035. In parallel to many emerging Asian countries, Sri Lanka has been struggling to meet the rising demand for power. After ending the 30 years of civil war, the country’s economy has been showing robust growth, in turn accelerating the demand for power.

Rising demand for renewable energy The present world’s trend more concerns energy security and sustainable development, hence the role of renewable energy in that has become ever more significant. The developed world is already on the track for walking out from fossil fuel era and to involve mainly in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. Therefore renewable energy is emerging as the energy supply solution for the 21st century. Thus to reach the desired renewable energy future of Sri Lanka, the country may have to choose between two options ‘make’ or ‘buy’. However, the decision depends on the resource endowments and the nature of the technology of the renewable energy sources. Lessons from China and India In today’s context the technology behind renewable energy has been evolved so rapidly and the advancements gained by many developed and rapidly developing nations like China and India provide good examples for developing countries like Sri Lanka. Today both China and India have rapidly built national wind power and solar photovoltaic (PV) industries with notable catching up. In the present context India leads the wind power sector, while China is taking the lead in the solar PV industry with major global-scale technological capabilities. In India, the wind industry formation phases from the 1980s which was characterised by the capital imports and the industries emerged as a combination of foreign direct investments (FDIs) and licensing strategies by the local companies. Today India has become the fifth largest wind power producers in the world with overseas research and development foreign acquisitions and collaborative research and development with foreign organisations. Presently China is leading the world solar power sector with world-class technological expertise, which was developed with in-house research and developments combined with various mechanisms such as licensing and joint ventures, overseas foreign direct investments, and collaborations with foreign universities. Tailor-made approach for Sri Lanka To a large extent, the state of the environment today is the result of the technological choices of yesterday. The adverse consequences of rising fossil fuel prices and environment concerns that we face today are the results of past actions that authorities have taken over the last few decades. Similarly, the state of the environment in the future will be determined largely by the technologies we choose today. Thus China and India provides perfect example for Sri Lanka towards a sustainable development. However it should be noted that the concept of technology transfer goes beyond mere transmission of equipment or even embodied knowledge. Effective technology transfer also involves the transfer of tactical knowledge capabilities that cannot be subjected to market-like exchange. So unless Sri Lanka has the proper knowledge to make informed choices among technological options, there is a risk that the efforts to promote international technology transfer may become overwhelmingly supplier driven and geared more towards transferring available technologies rather than technologies required by the country.