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Comparisons of technological innovation capabilities in the solar photovoltaic industries of Taiwan, China, and Korea

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Abstract

This paper investigates the technological innovation capabilities of the three Asian latecomers—namely Taiwan, China, and Korea—in the emergent solar photovoltaic industry. For this study, I deploy a new dataset of 75,540 solar photovoltaic patents taken out by Taiwan, China and Korea over the period of 31 years (1978–2008) and analyse the evolving technological innovation capabilities revealed in these patents using a set of four technology platforms that I constructed. This study demonstrates the patent portfolios of the three latecomers and explores what extent have the Taiwanese, Chinese, and Korean followers developed their technological innovation capabilities so as to surpass the US, German, and Japan and acquire the leading production positions; and how the variations of technological innovation capabilities among the major producers influence their business activities in the global solar photovoltaic industry. The results show the various strategies adopted by Taiwan, China, and Korea to develop their solar photovoltaic industries, reflect their different national innovation systems involved, and response to the current trends of technology development in the global solar photovoltaic industry.

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Notes

  1. SolarBuzz reports producers in China and Taiwan totally account for 59 % of global cell productions in 2010. For details, see Solar Buzz, ‘Industry Prepares for Significantly Lower Growth over Next Two Years’, available at: http://www.solarbuzz.com/our-research/recent-findings/solarbuzz-reports-world-solar-photovoltaic-market-grew-182-gigawatts-20.

  2. The IPC is an international standard to classify technologies in patent applications; it divides technologies into eight sections with approximately 70,000 subdivisions, please refer to WIPO www.wipo.int/classifications/ipc/en/general/preface.html).

  3. Twelve solar PV IPCs identified by Wu and Mathews (2012) are as following: C30B15 (single-crystal growth); C30B28 (production of polycrystalline material); C30B29 (single crystals or polycrystalline materials); E04D13/18 (solar panel roof); H01L21 (semiconductor manufacturing); H01L27 (semiconductor devices on a common substrate); H01L31 (photovoltaic semiconductor devices); H02N6 (photovoltaic generators); C23C14 (coating by vacuum evaporation); C23C16 (chemical vapour deposition); H01L51 (organic solid state devices); and H01G09 (organic semiconducting electrolytes), please see “Appendix” for the detailed definitions.

  4. The esp@cenet is a network of EPO databases, it offers free access to more than 80 million patent documents worldwide. Please refer to their website http://www.epo.org/searching/free/espacenet.html for details.

  5. To be cautiously, the four technology platforms were classified and verified by six industrial experts and researchers (including three R&D engineers at Taiwan’s solar PV companies, two researchers at the Energy and Environment Research Centre of the National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan), and one researcher at Industry Technology Research Institute (ITRI, Taiwan), according to their specialism for the IPCs.

  6. Although various indicators are employed by the previous works, the three indicators (namely RGR, RTA, and RPP) are widely recognized their importance to evaluate the level of technological innovation capability.

  7. For the detailed discussion, refer to ‘Recent trends in the PV industry: lessons from the patent application filing figures’, available at: http://legacy.pv-tech.org/?ACT=54&url=1&linklocker=NjYuMjQ5LjcyLjEzMw==MC43NjY3MTQwMCAxMjk3NzU4NTIz.

  8. SNE Research reports that Samsung will commercialize the dye-sensitized solar cells in 2013, see ‘DSSC Technology Trend and Market Forecast (2008–2015)’, available at: http://www.solarnenergy.com/eng/service/report_show.php?id=732.

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Acknowledgments

Earlier version of this paper was presented at IAMOT 2012 Conference, March 2012, held in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The author would like to give special thanks to Professor John A. Mathews and Professor Mei-Chih Hu for their comments and insights that assisted me in the development of this paper.

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  1. Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM), Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Ching-Yan Wu

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Appendix

Appendix

See Table 2.

Table 2 Detailed definitions of 12 solar PV related IPCs
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Wu, CY. Comparisons of technological innovation capabilities in the solar photovoltaic industries of Taiwan, China, and Korea. Scientometrics 98, 429–446 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1120-7

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