For some decades now, the energy transition has emerged as a global trend that demands an active strategy from States to transform the challenges of this process into opportunities for development in emerging countries. This trend demands a profound transformation of the energy matrix, that implies the gradual elimination of fossil fuels and the incorporation of diverse technologies for energy generation from renewable sources (EFR). These technologies are in different stages of development and, even though their adoption and diffusion can enhance the comparative advantages of the energy sector, their impact on the technological dynamism of its associated industries is not clear. For example, wind energy has a high penetration rate in South American energy markets and its diffusion, within an appropriate institutional and economic framework, has facilitated the installation of factories for blade production in Brazil and tower production in Argentina. At the same time, green hydrogen is in a phase of feedback between technology development and demonstration on a global scale, but countries in the region continue to outline their institutional frameworks without achieving significant technological advances
In the last decade, within the framework of neo-Schumpeterian and Evolutionist theories, various academic studies suggest that the processes of learning and innovation around industries based on the exploitation of natural resources (IBRN), such as those dedicated to the generation of EFR, are relevant for economic development, although these processes qualitatively differ from those in other segments of the economy. These works highlight the role IBRN have in the technological dynamism of the network of actors that supplies them with equipment, services and knowledge and their economic and technological relevance in South American economies. However, they also point out that there are conditions that enable these processes, which are expressed in the demand configuration, the industrial organization, the technology cycles, and the institutional. This work analyzes the innovation trajectory of the wind energy industry in Argentina and, after comparing its similarities and differences with the green hydrogen path in this country and globally, it draws lessons on the processes of learning and innovation around IBRN and the opportunities and challenges the green hydrogen industry pose to lever economic development in the region.
The trajectory of the wind sector in Argentina shows that, in the early stages of technology diffusion, firms with frontier technological capabilities can develop strategies to integrate themselves into production processes with high value-added and knowledge-intensive impacts on local suppliers. However, as wind energy is a complex and capital-intensive technology, its diffusion led to a process of global concentration. While the specificity of natural resources and the national regulatory framework can counterbalance the centrality of global firms, weighing the participation of local companies, financial logic, global certifications, and ICTs can counteract this trend. This raises questions about the relevance that the specificity of EFR and institutional frameworks have compared to other factors such as industry organization and market. Besides, the innovation pattern of electrolyzers and the knowledge embedded in these devices could constrain innovations around green hydrogen.
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