Interrogating protective space : shielding, nurturing and empowering Dutch solar PV

This paper reviews the developments of solar photovoltaic technology in the Netherlands. Despite the recent boom in PV industries and deployment around the globe, the Dutch have until now not experienced major growth in the diffusion of PV electricity generation. But this is only part of the story. This paper focuses on the question why PV is still around in the Netherlands despite, at times, harsh policy and socio-economic contexts. It builds upon a recently developed framework from the field of transition studies that distinguishes between shielding, nurturing and empowerment of sustainable innovations. A historical description is combined with an analysis of niche space to show how PV advocates have been able to strategically secure and shape protective measures over four decades in the context of harsh regime selection environments. The paper suggests how further analysis with the shielding-nurturing-empowerment framework can learn from this exploratory study on PV innovation in the Netherlands.