Established sectors expediting clean technology industries? The Norwegian oil and gas sector's influence on offshore wind power

The development and deployment of clean energy technologies must be accelerated to avoid a more than 2-degree warmer world, which poses a major policy challenge. Utilization of the vast resources concentrated in established sectors is one possible way to advance clean technology industries. However, prior research on energy transitions tends to emphasize competition and conflict between established sectors and clean-tech industries. There is thus a need for studying how established sectors may positively contribute to clean-tech industries. We propose an extended analytical framework of the technological innovation systems (TIS) approach to study how established sectors influence clean-tech industries, and present new definitions and indicators. We present a case study of oil and gas sector and offshore wind power industry development in Norway. Our results show that while the oil and gas sector has several positive implications for offshore wind power, wavering priorities and commitment of diversified oil and gas firms to the new industry have negative implications. We conclude by discussing the relevance of our findings for policy and research targeting the development of clean-tech industries.

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