The clustering level of solar energy systems firms: The sample of West Mediterranean region

Today, it has become compulsory for companies to act in mutual cooperation in order to survive and increase their competitiveness. For this reason, firms are involved in the cluster formation and with this formation, they can make important values for the country's economy by creating new production, employment and exports, increasing in added-value and cooperating with institutions like universities. Satisfying the needs of energy is one of the most important problems of today's societies. Technological activities towards fossil energy sources improve the current situation but the reality is that these fuel reserves will end in the future. Solar energy, which is one of the renewable energy sources, has a different and important place because of not having fuel problem, being unlimited and costless and not damaging to environment. From this point of view, determining the clustering levels of solar energy systems firms which are operating in the West Mediterranean region has been the subject of research. In the direction of this aim, 44 data on solar energy systems companies which are operating in the West Mediterranean Region were obtained by using survey technique from quantitative data collection methods. The obtained data were analyzed by using the SPSS 20 packet program. Kolmogorov- Simirnov, Cronbach Alpha, Descriptive Statistics, Kruskal- Wallis H Test, Single Sample T Test and Chi-square Homogeneity Test were used in the analysis of the data. The result of the analysis showed that the solar energy systems sector in the West Mediterranean region has clustering potential and 28 of 44 firms which data are collected from has a high tendency clustering and 16 of these firms are determined in the middle clustering. Also, it was confirmed that the energy firms which produce solar collector have higher clustering degree than the firms which produce photovoltaic. Within this scope, it is predicted that the clustering formation which is suitable for sector will provide significant contributions to the regional economic development.