Responsible innovation in practice: The adoption of solar PV in telecom towers in Indonesia

Abstract

The adoption of solar PV in telecom towers is considered as a sustainable innovation in powering the towers. Such adoption involves different actors which hold different tasks and responsibilities. However, the inclination that comes up among the actors involved is that if and when a disaster occurs (e.g. Telecom systems collapse) due to the failure in the operation and management of solar PV after its installation, they will most likely be prone to finger-pointing at each other. In such situation, the questions arise: How to locate the accountability, who should be accountable to whom and for what, and how to proportionally distribute the accountability? Through a case study in Indonesia, this paper discusses and analyzes how to address such issue by undertaking stakeholder and impact analysis and analysis of five dimensions of responsible innovation namely: Anticipation, reflexivity, responsiveness, deliberation, and participation. Our analysis suggests that there is a need of an innovative way or technology that can proportionally distribute the accountability of actors involved. The paper also concludes that innovation without responsibility faces dangers of rejection or less acceptability of even greener and sustainable technology.