Through an analysis of the political structure, fiscal system, and financing mechanisms at the local level in China, this study seeks to investigate the incentives that prompted local Chinese governments to overinvest in the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry. I find that local governments have several incentives to promote economic development by supporting local industries; their support of China’s PV industry illustrates these incentives. Specifically, we find that there are three major incentives for local governments in China to overinvest in the solar PV industry. First, due to the nature of China’s tax policy, local governments have supported the PV sector to increase local revenue. Second, as these industries have become significant sources of local employment, it is hard to stop supporting them now that PV companies are having difficulties. Third, local officials seek promotions under the economic indicator system by gaining higher GDP. PV companies have been very helpful in contributing to local economic growth, thereby advancing the careers of government officials. Farsighted provinces like Jiangsu used the strength of their existing industrial base and favorable geographical location (proximity to ports) to attract visionary innovators and investors for building their PV manufacturing bases. Thanks to the distorted local political and economic incentives in China, this early wave of PV industry investments preceded a flood of imitating local governments that sought to expand their own PV manufacturing. This uncoordinated, irrational exuberance stemming from distorted, bottom-up local incentives has led to the massive PV manufacturing overcapacity in China. / text

Studying organizational capabilities from the perspective of national institutions has been widely adopted in high tech industries in developed countries, but scarcely in developing countries. This research applies this framework into China to study the solar PV industry, but at the regional level. The solar PV industry in China has strongly developed in the global market in recent years, having been the biggest solar PV producer since 2007. However, there are contrast regional differences in the solar PV industry development between Jiangsu and Shandong. The solar PV producers in Jiangsu have stronger organizational capabilities to perform well compared to those in Shandong. Thus this research adopts the framework to explore the influence of regional institutions (the role of regional government, financial systems, inter-firm relations and education and labor systems) in building organizational capabilities (R&D capabilities in technology, capabilities in finance, managerial coordination and human resources) in solar PV industry in Jiangsu and Shandong regions. Comparative case studies are adopted in my research and the research has investigated six solar PV companies and several associated organizations. It is concluded that different regional institutions have different influences (to promote or hinder) in building organizational capabilities in the solar PV industry. Compared to Shandong, the regional institutions in Jiangsu can help solar PV companies to build organizational capabilities. The research findings indicate the importance of regional institutions in China.

Solar cell production has served as the most important link in solar photovoltaic¡]PV¡^ supply chain from upstream silicon raw material and wafer supply to downstream module and system installation. The PV industry enjoyed a miraculously rapid growth in recent years with Taiwan ranking No. 4 in global solar cell production in 2008. However, in the wake of the financial storm, the industry has gone through some unprecedented changes in the market due to the severe global demand shrinkage. Looking ahead, challenges also lie in product assimilation and profit erosion. Difficulty will increase with market concentration and global operation; while the low yield of capital investment in R & D in the new industry adds on the pressure, too. This thesis proposes a four-step global development strategy for Taiwan solar cell industry after a SWOT analysis. Producers are advised to exert current strengths in developing tolling business in the short term for elevating uptime and capacity, while, in the long run, they should coordinate more efforts in brand-building and innovation for differentiation. Efforts should also be persisted to strengthen linkage within the supply chain and to extend ties with the government, end market, or other industries to create better synergy. Meanwhile, the government is expected to provide incentives for strategic research, to assist in cross-business alliance with Taiwan leading IT technologies and to bridge between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits for enhanced cooperation in solar PV industry, to ensure Taiwan¡¦s firm grip in the rising industry of global alternative energy.

Considering the long term target set by the Swedish government of having an energy system basedexclusively on renewable sources, the potential for different renewable sources need to beinvestigated. When analyzing the sources used for electricity production in Sweden today, solarPV represents a very small share. This relatively small share also mainly consists of grid-connecteddistributed PV systems, and to analyze the possibilities of making solar energy a larger share inthe electricity production in Sweden this study will focus on grid-connected centralized PV farms.The main purpose of the study is to identify the potential for grid-connected centralized PVsystems for large scale production in Sweden. This will include an identification of the mostimportant key factors influencing the profitability, an investment calculation to be aware of theprofitability, a prediction of the future development of the PV industry in Sweden and lastly themain challenges that the PV industry is facing.To conduct this study a collaboration with Vattenfall Vind AB has been made, where a case studybased on three specific locations has been implemented when analyzing both the profitability andthe key factors. These three cases are based on places where Vattenfall has existing wind farms orhas assigned for upcoming ones. These areas could be seen as a potential benefit since the companyalready has started to inspect the land area, and that wind and PV farms might be able to sharenecessities such as infrastructure.The results of the study mainly indicate that the PV industry most likely will continue develop andgrow, but the profitability of investing in grid-connected centralized PV farms does not lookpromising today or in the next coming years. This mainly due to low prices for electricity anduncertainties in the future development of the financial support policy. The location is also veryimportant for this type of installation. There are places in southern Sweden with enough insolation,but these areas can be seen as limited. To make solar energy a larger share of the electricityproduction in Sweden in a profitable way today, more investments should be made in gridconnecteddistributed PV systems rather than grid-connected centralized PV farms. PV farms forlarge scale production might though be more profitable in the future when the prices for modulesand inverters will decrease further and when the spot price increases.