Media coverage as a descriptor of renewable energy diffusion
Pelkonen, Tuisku (2011)
Pelkonen, Tuisku
2011
Tuotantotalouden koulutusohjelma
Teknis-taloudellinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Business and Technology Management
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2011-12-07
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-2011123014977
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-2011123014977
Tiivistelmä
Technology foresight scholars have addressed a need to further develop the methodology in the field. Especially in the field of renewable energy (RE) new tools to figure out the potential and future directions of different RE forms has to be further developed for the polity to be able to aim the promotion schemes correctly. This thesis aims to serve avenues for future technology foresight method development in RE field.
A gap in research exists, as bibliometric studies using media as a descriptor of the diffusion of RE technologies has not been made, even if newspapers are acknowledged as a suitable data source in the application phase of a technology. Previous bibliometric diffusion studies have used patents and scientific publications as data sources. This thesis aims to fill the research gap.
In this thesis the use of bibliometric newspaper data as a reflector of RE production is examined, and the research question is: Does a connection between media coverage and RE primary production exist. Research is made using three countries – Germany, Ireland and the UK – and three renewable energy forms – wind, solar photovoltaic and hydroelectric energy – as research subjects, and the examination period is 1995 – 2008. The analysis is performed using Spearman correlation with 1 % significance level.
The results show that statistically significant Spearman correlations between media coverage and primary energy production exist on part of wind energy in all three countries, and also on solar photovoltaic energy in Germany. The data was not appropriate for analysis on part of solar photovoltaic energy in Ireland and the UK, thus results on these subjects were not gained. The results on part of hydroelectric energy showed weak correlations in all three countries.
Results suggest that the examined RE technologies’ media coverage describes their diffusion level, if that technology is in the early phases of diffusion. The results are consistent with the previous research made using patents and scientific publications as data sources, and can be used to further develop the foresight methodology. /Kir11
A gap in research exists, as bibliometric studies using media as a descriptor of the diffusion of RE technologies has not been made, even if newspapers are acknowledged as a suitable data source in the application phase of a technology. Previous bibliometric diffusion studies have used patents and scientific publications as data sources. This thesis aims to fill the research gap.
In this thesis the use of bibliometric newspaper data as a reflector of RE production is examined, and the research question is: Does a connection between media coverage and RE primary production exist. Research is made using three countries – Germany, Ireland and the UK – and three renewable energy forms – wind, solar photovoltaic and hydroelectric energy – as research subjects, and the examination period is 1995 – 2008. The analysis is performed using Spearman correlation with 1 % significance level.
The results show that statistically significant Spearman correlations between media coverage and primary energy production exist on part of wind energy in all three countries, and also on solar photovoltaic energy in Germany. The data was not appropriate for analysis on part of solar photovoltaic energy in Ireland and the UK, thus results on these subjects were not gained. The results on part of hydroelectric energy showed weak correlations in all three countries.
Results suggest that the examined RE technologies’ media coverage describes their diffusion level, if that technology is in the early phases of diffusion. The results are consistent with the previous research made using patents and scientific publications as data sources, and can be used to further develop the foresight methodology. /Kir11