Taking eleven countries in Europe, Canada, South Africa, America, Latin America and Australia, this book discusses recurring barriers to cluster development in the renewable energy sector. The authors look at the real-world dynamics and tensions between stakeholders on the ground, with a particular focus on the relationships between SMEs and other actors. This trans-regional study is unique in its scale and scope, drawing on a decade of field research to show how by learning from the successes and failures of other clusters, costs and risk can be reduced. The book fills a significant gap in the literature for policymakers, managers and economic developers in a key market.

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Taking eleven countries in Europe, Canada, South Africa, America, Latin America and Australia, this book discusses recurring barriers to cluster development in the renewable energy sector. The authors look at the real-world dynamics and tensions between stakeholders on the ground, with a particular focus on the relationships between SMEs and other actors. This trans-regional study is unique in its scale and scope, drawing on a decade of field research to show how by learning from the successes and failures of other clusters, costs and risk can be reduced. The book fills a significant gap in the literature for policymakers, managers and economic developers in a key market.

PartⅠ Setting the Scene 1 Supporting Clusters to Create Value: Are We Missing Something? 2 What Exactly Are Clusters? 3 Why Share Experience of Barriers? 4 How Have We Explored the Issues? The Californian Case as an Example PartⅡ Case Studies 5 The Portuguese Case: The Cost of Inequality 6 The German Case: A Cluster Under Threat 7 The Canadian Case: The Free Play of Market Forces on an Uneven Playing Field 8 The South African Case: Developing and Implementing Incentives to Capture Solar Market Opportunities PartⅢ Discussion of Cross-Cutting Barriers 9 Recurring Barriers: Cross Cluster Analysis 10 Barriers at the Interface Between Companies and Universities 11 Policy-Related Barriers 12 Communication and Collaboration Barriers PartⅣ Conclusion 13 Are We Missing Something? How Can Cluster Policies Create the Conditions for Value Generation? Appendix