• Energy Research

Abstract The automotive market worldwide is experiencing unprecedented growth, driven by the adoption of electric passenger and light commercial vehicles, and more recently, by the introduction of electric trucks - in Europe, the United States and Asia – in an attempt to cut greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality, promoting social, environmental, and economic sustainability. This study aims at understanding the perspective of diesel-truck players, regarding the transition to electric engines, from a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive point of view, using a multilevel and co-evolutionary approach, with a longitudinal temporal perspective, from 2016 to 2022, in Brazil. Among factors identified for the adoption of electric trucks in Brazil are some technological, economic and regulatory elements, consistent with the theory: (a) to increase the availability of public and commercial charging stations; (b) to adapt clean-energy production, transmission and distribution to meet new charge demands; (c) to make hydrogen production cheaper by increasing production; and (d) fuel-cell regulation and standardization. Our evidence-gathering expands the list and adds two resistance factors: (e) business models used to guarantee sales development; and (f) lack of qualified personnel, at the automaker and service network, in terms of electrotechnical expertise and skillset.

A new brewery is founded in Brazil every two days. Yet with climate change, drinking water is increasingly scarce. Previous studies have begun exploring the brewing industry, but an examination of circular economy initiatives in Latin America is lacking, particularly during the COVID era. This study analyzes strategic implications of circular economy initiatives, together with their role in the coevolution of the craft beer sociotechnical system in Brazil from a resource perspective during the COVID pandemic. Using a qualitative methodology based on analytic induction, 11 in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with key actors from the craft beer sociotechnical system in Guarapuava. For the content analysis, we triangulated the interviews with an analysis of 74 related documents. We found evidence of circular economy practices and sociotechnical transitions with the simultaneous coevolution of the system actors. Increasing rejection of the linear take–make–waste economy was observed as subject organizations largely adopted a regenerative model reducing operational waste. Hence, entrepreneurial innovation was apparently crucial for resource allocation during the COVID era. This work contributes to further understanding resource configurations in the circular economy, with practical implications for integrating sustainability into strategy, business models, and production.

The study of transformative policies and how they can promote the spread of a technology connects interests among different actors such as government, industry, and academia, who seek solutions for the use of renewable energy, among them solar energy. This study investigates transformative innovation policy for the solar PV energy in Brazil from a sociotechnical perspective of innovation and suggests ways to better promote this technology in Brazil. This study was based on data from two different information sources: (1) in-depth interviews with actors in the Brazilian national innovation system; and (2) secondary data from energy sector in Brazil. With an analysis that is unprecedented for Brazil, the study presents a proposal for transformative innovation policies for the sociotechnical transition process of solar energy in Brazil. The results indicate the need for incentive policies to develop the Brazilian domestic solar panel industry across the whole value chain, as well as for the definition of policies to encourage technological innovation and the formation of cooperation networks among the actors of the system as key elements to promote and disseminate this technology in Brazil.