No transition without transmission: HVDC electricity infrastructure as an enabler for renewable energy?

The sustained push for large-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies across the EU is generating transformation pressures on the transmission infrastructure and stimulating technological change within it. In particular, high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology has been rejuvenated in recent years and its role in the grid is now growing. Still, uncertainties prevail over the longer-term extent of both sector transformation and HVDC development and diffusion. We analyze recent trends in HVDC as a technological innovation system (TIS) within the transmission sector. We build on previous research that explicitly conceptualizes and analyzes interactions between a focal TIS and other TIS and larger sectors. Our analysis illustrates the merits of such an approach. We conclude by pointing out key policy issues for changing transmission grids and for further HVDC development and diffusion. We also show how the idiosyncratic techno-economic properties of infrastructure sectors affect the dynamics of technological change within them.