Empirical application of the multi-level perspective: tracing the history of ground-source heat pumps systems in Finland

Abstract

<p>The emergence and evolution of more sustainable technologies and related industrial fields<br />is a core concern for sustainability transitions scholars. This interest is accentuated as it has<br />become evident that the upscaling of transition-relevant technologies follows different pathways<br />in varying national and geographic contexts. The usual research approach to studying<br />such industry-field dynamics in particular contexts has been to use the technological innovation<br />systems (TIS) framework, focusing on the emergence of functioning TISs. The current<br />calls for life-cycle TIS and the few existing examples of operationalizing the multi-level perspective<br />(MLP) in a more focused way underscore the need to better account for the contextual<br />specifics, contingencies, and later phases in the proliferation of transition<br />technologies. We elaborate on the benefits of using the MLP in long-term analyses of transition<br />technologies by examining the history of ground-source heat pump (GSHP) systems in<br />Finland from the era of the energy crises in the 1970s until the present day. The investigation<br />reveals how the present success of GSHPs has not followed just from simple innovation-<br />system dynamics or niche-regime landscape relations but is also a result of variations<br />and extent of landscape pressure as well as unplanned support from neighboring niche<br />technologies.<br /></p>