Future business models in renewable energy: Case study on ground-source heat, wood chips and biogas (13th Nordic Environmental Social Science conferencen abstrakti, Tampere 6.-8.6. 2017)

Abstract

<p>A large-scale transition towards renewable energy is on-going in various countries, following in part from sustainability goals related to climate policy, increased energy security concerns and rapid development of energy technologies. For example, EU has set targets for the renewable energy production: 20% energy consumption comes from renewable energy sources by 2020 and 27% by 2030. The share of renewable energy is now growing in many European countries but in Finland the recent development has been modest. Finland has a long tradition in utilising wood industry side-streams and hydropower for energy production in a centralized manner. Recent technological advances have opened new opportunities and interest in renewable energy, particularly in rural areas connected to energy grids. There are “forerunners” and “early adopters” among both large and small energy companies as well as individual households who have begun investing into decentralised renewable energy systems. We focus on elements of business models distinctive to forerunners operating on three decentralised energy sources, namely ground-source heat, wood chips and biogas. We analyse four different business model dimensions: product / service innovation, infrastructure, economy and customer relationship management. The material is gathered from ca. 30 expert interviews (including the forerunners and other stakeholders) of renewable energy in Finland and from policy documents regarding renewable energy. Our results show the different actors’ incentives to utilize or not utilize decentralized energy production methods.</p>