Exploring investment enablers and barriers for mature and novel renewable energy technologies using the Delphi method

Abstract

This paper investigates why certain renewable technologies have become more attractive for investors in recent years than other renewable energy technologies. This paper specifically investigates both technological and non-technological aspects of projects that have affected the risk perception of different investor types. This paper addresses the research question ‘How do technology-specific, non-technology specific and investor-specific barriers and enablers shape the risk perception of different renewable energy technologies in the financial market?’ This question was approached by using interview data that followed the Delphi research design. The interviews were carried out with expert figures in the renewable energy financial market. The principal findings show that there are technological inherent issues in current novel renewable energy technologies that directly impact its cash flow and appropriate financing structure which impose entry barriers for certain investor types and small-scale project developers. An improved understanding of such technology-finance interactions can contribute to designing public policies that incentivise the correct type of finance designing on the technological requirement of the renewable energy project.