Public purchase of innovation for sustainable solar urban energy systems

The public purchase of innovation (PPI) is a type of public purchase that can contribute to sustainability in a significant way. Purchasing solar-powered energy systems can be a social innovation, bringing several opportunities for improving health, encouraging local entrepreneurship, building resilience, and promoting sustainable development. In the purchase decision of innovation, a public purchaser evaluates alternatives based on economic figures and specific risk management actions to obtain those figures. In this work, the authors introduce a motivational public purchase decision case. After that, the authors propose a conceptual model called Public Purchase of Innovation for Sustainable Solar Urban Energy Systems (2p-ISSUES) to allocate risks and opportunities. The model is then used to search for information in several scientific and technical research works about public purchase both, non-solar and solar-based distributed energy systems, promoting interoperability between the research community and public agencies. Potential improvements are given and discussed for future versions of the model, also demonstrating potential knowledge gaps in PPI processes and the importance of conducting systematic research using ontological models and tools.