Waste-Based Bioenergy: Operationalising Technology Innovation System Analysis to Go Beyond Assessments of Potential into Implementation

ABSTRACT 

Clean modern energy and improved waste management are two well-recognised challenges

in the global transition to sustainable development. There exist synergistic opportunities in

simultaneously tackling the two issues via the generation of bioenergy from suitable waste

streams. This potential has been successfully exploited elsewhere in the world; however,

South Africa, despite having significant potential, lags behind in the implementation of these

technologies and the respective conditions to use them. To understand slowly evolving

technology trajectories and how to facilitate the pace of implementation, sustainability

transition approaches such as the Technology Innovation System (TIS) framework have been

found to be useful.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the utility of a TIS approach to investigate how the

potential of waste-based bioenergy in South Africa can be unlocked to recover energy from

waste using anaerobic digestion technology (EfWviaAD). Going beyond previous TIS studies,

this thesis also aims to experiment with aspects of the TIS approach, so as to observe steps

towards implementation. Key to the TIS approach is the notion of critical activities and

processes around an emerging technology called system functions. Seven of these system

functions detailed in Chapter 2 are proposed. These include knowledge development and

diffusion, market forming activities, mobilisation of resources etc. The thesis sets out to

answer two key research questions:

The first question seeks to establish whether the technology innovation system approach be

used to locate and describe elements of technological transitions in South Africa’s nascent

energy-from-waste industry, using the seven functions proposed by Hekkert et al. (2007)?

Also whether insights gained from testing the TIS approach on the more mature solar

water heater technology are useful in describing the evolution of the anaerobic digestion

industry in South Africa?

Results of TIS analyses show that the emergent Biogas Innovation System (BIS) can indeed

be identified and its evolution described using the TIS approach. By assessing the

applicability of the TIS approach in the context of the solar water heater (SWH) sector in

South Africa, insights on how these transitions evolved were gained. Subsequent to the SWH

study, the TIS approach was employed to examine South Africa’s BIS. For both of these

technologies, the periods of notable inertia are characterised by the occurrence of few critical

activities, which do not reinforce one another, and if they do, it is downwards directed

reinforcement of so-called vicious cycles. The periods of increased momentum are

symbolised by the individual fulfilment of system functions, and their cumulative

reinforcement into so-called virtuous cycles. This thesis shows that, for the BIS, six of the

seven key system functions suggested by the TIS approach are heavily involved at the end of

the period studied play a crucial role in facilitating the evolution of the BIS into a system

building mode. The absence of market formation activities limits the extent to which the BIS

can be propelled into a sustained market dynamic, as observed elsewhere in more mature TIS,

as well as in the case of the SWH Innovation System (IS) in South Africa. In addition, this

thesis finds that the seven TIS functions described in Chapter 2, adequately described the

trajectories of the SWH IS and BIS. Moreover, the results also identify some elements that

are unique to transitioning economies. For example, resources are mobilised and knowledge

is developed in a unique way. Grants, donor funds and climate change finance have been

observed to ignite knowledge development activities, which themselves are dominated by

pilot projects and feasibility studies, as opposed to the technical research that is observed in

more mature economies.

Locating the status of innovation and technology development and identifying limitations to

its growth was the first step in more effectively exploiting the potential in the use of

bioenergy in South Africa. The question of how to influence the course of development

positively is captured by the second research question:

Which of the seven functions can academic research most influence and strengthen? How

would one go about influencing identified functions, consequently contributing to

improved operation of an innovation system?

It was hypothesised that of the seven system functions, this project could most likely

influence BIS through knowledge-based functions, viz. knowledge development and

diffusion. A participatory action-based approach was adopted to plan and participate in three

knowledge development and diffusion activities. The former entailed planning and

implementing two biogas pilot projects, and the latter entailed organising and hosting a

specialist workshop with identified BIS actors. The impact of these interventions on the BIS

was tracked via semi-structured interviews with the pilot projects’ visitors on the one hand

and the workshop participants on the other hand, at least one year after the visit. The results

show that the intervention, through the described activities and events, led to a number of

other activities considered critical to the evolution of a TIS. On the one hand, the knowledge

development activities led to other activities that fulfilled other knowledge-related TIS

functions and those that give clarity to the direction of the BIS. The knowledge diffusion

activity on the other hand contributed to the fulfilment of all the other TIS functions – except

for the resource mobilisation and market formation function.

In summary, this thesis firstly reaffirms that systemic approaches to understanding

technology transition, in this case the TIS framework, are useful in locating and explaining

technology trajectories. The notions of system functions and cumulative causation describe

why the mere presence or absence of certain activities or events (barriers and drivers) does

not sufficiently explain technology success or failure. In fact, it is the interaction of specific

factors that explains the emergence of technological innovation systems and their

development into mature markets. Further, it has been demonstrated that planned

interventions by a set of actors (in this case the emergent South African BIS) can steer a TIS

towards a more mature structure and functionality