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- to analyse the processes, factors and dynamics that are responsible for the cluster life cycle and distinguish the life cycle of the cluster from that of the respective technology or industry;
- to distinguish between endogenous drivers through the cluster life cycle and those which are exogenous, but nevertheless influence the cluster life cycle;
- to give policy advice to develop stage-specific measures to create environments that are more targeted in order to contribute to the emergence of new clusters, prevent existent clusters from decline and transform declining clusters into new clusters.
First attempts to convert wind energy into electricity started nearly 100 years ago. Wind energy conversion as an industry, however, emerged not before the 70s with the need to produce alternative forms of energy. While the industry did not establish a pronounced spatial concentration during its growth, it nevertheless formed a distinct spatiality. The industry’s core-region ranges from Denmark via North Western Germany to the Netherlands. Till the uprising of newly industrialized countries like China mid 90s, more than half of the industry was located in this area.
Nowadays, sites for on-shore wind parks are getting scarce and new wind parks are planned off-shore. Firms, however, were not able to successfully apply their established on-shore technologies off-shore. Different weather conditions, new forms of mounting and maintenance required a new technological architecture for wind turbines. These technological necessities and the growing demand for off-shore wind turbines started to transform the wind energy industry.
This transformation from on- to offshore also alters the spatial configuration of the industry. On the global level, off-shore wind industry is concentrated in the old core region. Within this particular region, the off-shore industry also exhibits a distinct spatial pattern. Traditionally, on-shore turbine production is spatially dispersed and mostly located in rural areas. The off shore industry, in contrast, is organized within production complexes, mostly located near harbors. Furthermore, facilities of company administration, research and development as well as industry organizations like fairs are relocated to larger cities, especially to Hamburg. Thus, it seems that off-shore wind energy exhibits a much more pronounced spatial fragmentation than its on-shore counterpart.
The aim of the research project is to analyze the technological, organizational, and institutional drivers behind this change; how these drivers transform the economic relations within the wind turbine industry; and how this industrial transformation is connected to a changing spatial configuration of the whole wind energy industry in North Western Germany.
