Justice-oriented Energy Transitions and the Role of Smart Technologies in Emerging and Developing Countries

Building productive capabilities in green energy sectors - An analysis of Chile and Peru
The research will contribute to a better understanding of how Latin American countries can phase in foreign technologies to foster green energy transitions as well as how they can build productive capabilities to profit from opportunities of green value chains. Thus, the research aims to contribute to the literature of green industrial policy and global value chains (GVCs) by studying the development of the solar energy industry in Chile and Peru. Green energy transitions provide an opportunity for countries to address climate change as well as generate opportunities for economic growth, innovation and value-addition. I am interested in assessing how countries consume green technologies and how they can also innovate and participate in the process of their production. In particular, the research will look at the role of public policies in building productive capabilities, which will allow countries to generate linkages and reap greater benefits locally from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and GVCs.
Research objectives
The experiences of Chile and Peru can help us to understand how energy transitions occur in developing contexts. The study will explore the policies, programmes, plans and norms adopted by these countries, as well as other factors behind the different levels of progress made. After analysing deployment efforts, the research will focus on the interaction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the local environment. The last decade has witnessed electricity auctions in Latin American countries. Chile has led auctions on a near-annual basis since 2006 and Peru has held four auctions between 2009 and 2015. This mechanism has successfully increased the participation of NCREs in the electricity mix and led to large inflows of FDI (Viscidi & Yepez, 2020). The projects developed in these countries and the enterprises engaged will be studied to see the interaction between FDI, GVCs, local productive environment and innovation systems.
The research seeks to understand under what conditions FDI generates a transfer of technology, knowledge and know-how, and builds local capabilities in green sectors. This research will also look at the role of national innovation systems, their interaction with FDI and its contribution to the development of industrial capabilities and national innovation.
Furthermore, it is important to study the obstacles impeding further advances in innovation and value creation. Both countries lag behind Brazil and Mexico and even more compared to more advanced economies (Miller & Visicdi, 2016). Understanding the limitations of the innovation system and its interaction with different stakeholders should help explain why the transfer of technology and know-how is insufficient.