Abstract:    China′s waste-to-energy (WTE) industry started late but developed rapidly. Today, it is not only ahead of the traditional WTE powers in terms of scale of WTE, but also has leapt from unknown to the world leader in technology, becoming a typical case of Chinese-style modernization. Through the analysis of the process of national policy evolution and the transformation of waste disposal from exogenous to endogenous technologies, we revealed the key factors for China′s WTE technology to the catch-up and surpassing stage—the enterprise′s independent learning ability and China′s macro guidance on the technical route. We found in the study that, firstly, the development of waste treatment policies is a necessary condition for forcing enterprises to innovate and promoting the prosperity of the WTE industry. Secondly, China′s WTE technology has gone through a development path from exogenous technology introduction to endogenous independent innovation, successfully achieving comprehensive leadership in the scale and technology of WTE. Thirdly, we proposed a model of “dual core driven endogenous innovation organization model”, under which the combination of “promising government” and “effective market” is the core power to promote endogenous innovation of WTE technology in China. Our results obtained from the study are not only helpful to reveal the technological transformation process of WTE in China, but also beneficial to provide some typical practical experiences for the Chinese-style modernization.

Key words: waste-to-energy (WTE), endogenous technological innovation, Chinese-style modernization, grand market