How innovation systems emerge to solve ecological problems: Biofuels in the United States and Brazil

This paper discusses the re-emergence of biofuel innovation systems in the United States and Brazil. We argue that innovation systems emerge and evolve to solve a problem, and that the way the problem is framed and articulated has a significant impact on the direction and momentum of this evolution. Additionally, innovation sequences occur with a recurrent pattern of changing problems and innovative solutions. We consider the role of the State as a core actor in the mobilisation of innovation systems and discuss how specific institutional arrangements, political contexts and technological competencies influence how problems are framed. We find that role of the State varies across time as well as across different geographical regions. Finally, we suggest that as ecological problems intensify we might expect to see an increase in State intervention in innovation systems

How Responsive Are EU Coal-Burning Plants to Changes in Energy Prices?

The European Union (EU) Emissions Trading System (ETS) has implicitly made it more expensive to burn coal relative to natural gas because coal has a higher carbon content. Therefore, it is important to understand how much plants reduce their coal usage in response to higher coal prices to assess the effectiveness of the ETS in reducing carbon emissions. We analyze a novel panel of coal-burning large combustion plants from a subsample of eight EU countries and found that, holding constant the natural gas price, a 1% increase in the coal price results in a 0.36% decrease in coal consumption. At current ETS prices, this implies that the average large combustion plant in our sample EU countries is burning 7% less coal than it would be absent in the ETS. This suggests that the ETS has significantly reduced carbon emissions from coal-fired plants for the eight countries represented in our sample

Large Scale Deployment of Renewables for Electricity Generation

Comparisons of resource assessments suggest resource constraints are not an obstacle to the large-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies. Economic analysis identifies barriers to the adoption of renewable energy sources resulting from market structure, competition in an uneven playing field and various non-market place barriers. However, even if these barriers are removed, the problem of ‘technology lock-out’ remains. The key policy response is strategic deployment coupled with increased R&D support to accelerate the pace of improvement through market experience. The paper suggests significant contributions from various technologies, but does not assess their optimal or maximal market share

Winner, Loser, or Innocent Victim? Has Renewable Energy Performed As Expected?

This study provides an evaluation of the performance of five renewable energy technologies used to generate electricity: biomass, geothermal, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal, and wind. The authors compared the actual performance of these technologies against stated projections that helped shape public policy goals over the last three decades. Their findings document a significant difference between the success of renewable technologies in penetrating the U.S. electricity generation market and in meeting cost-related goals, when compared with historic projections. In general, renewable technologies have failed to meet expectations with respect to market penetration. They have succeeded, however, in meeting or exceeding expectations with respect to their cost. To a significant degree, the difference in performance in meeting projections of penetration and cost stem from the declining price of conventional generation, which constitutes a moving baseline against which renewable technologies have had to compete.

The role of biomass in the renewable energy system

Europe is striving for zero carbon electricity production by 2050 in order to avoid dangerous climate change. To meet this target a large variety of options is being explored. Biomass is such an option and should be given serious consideration. In this paper the potential role of biomass in a NW-European electricity mix is analyzed. The situation in NW-Europe is unique since it is a region which is a fore runner in renewable technology promotion but also an area with little sun, almost no potential for hydro and a lot of wind. This will result in a substantial need for non-intermittent low-carbon options such as biomass. The benefits and issues related to biomass are discussed in detail from both an environmental and an economic perspective. The former will focus on the life cycle of a biomass pellet supply chain, from the growth of the trees down to the burning of the pellets on site. The latter will provide detailed insights on the levelized cost of electricity for biomass and the role of biomass as a grid stabilizer in high intermittent scenarios. During the discussion, biomass will be compared to other competing electricity technologies to have a full understanding of its advantages and drawbacks. We find that biomass can play a very important role in the future low carbon electricity mix, the main bottleneck being the supply of large amounts of sustainably produced feedstock

Determinants of Renewable Energy Innovation: Environmental Policies vs. Market Regulation

This paper carries out a comprehensive analysis of renewable energy innovations considering four mechanisms suggested by innovation models: 1. policy-inducement; 2. market structure; 3. demand and social cohesion- mainly proxied by income inequality; 4. characteristics of country knowledge base. For OECD countries and years 1970-2005, we build a unique dataset containing time-varying information on quality-adjusted patent production in renewable energy, the latter being a function of environmental policies, green R&D, entry barriers, knowledge stock, knowledge diversity and income inequality. We develop count data models using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to account for endogeneity of policy support. Our synthetic policy index positively affects innovations especially in countries with deregulated energy markets and low entry barriers. The effect of entry barriers and inequality is negative and of similar magnitude as that of policy. Product market liberalization positively affects green patent generation, especially so when ambitious policies are adopted, when the initial level of public R&D expenditures and when the initial share of distributed energy generation is high. Our results are robust to alternative specifications, to the inclusion of technology-specific effects and to the use of quality-adjusted patents as dependent variables. In the latter case, the estimated effect of lowering entry barriers and of knowledge diversity almost double on citation count relatively to patent count.renewable energy technology; patent; environmental policies; product market regulation; inequality

Determinants of Renewable Energy Innovation: environmental policies vs. market regulation

This paper carries out a comprehensive analysis of renewable energy innovations considering four mechanisms suggested by innovation models: 1. policy-inducement; 2. market structure; 3. demand and social cohesion- mainly proxied by income inequality; 4. characteristics of country knowledge base. For OECD countries and years 1970-2005, we build a unique dataset containing time-varying information on quality-adjusted patent production in renewable energy, the latter being a function of environmental policies, green R&D, entry barriers, knowledge stock, knowledge diversity and income inequality. We develop count data models using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to account for endogeneity of policy support. Our synthetic policy index positively affects innovations especially in countries with deregulated energy markets and low entry barriers. The effect of entry barriers and inequality is negative and of similar magnitude as that of policy. Product market liberalization positively affects green patent generation, especially so when ambitious policies are adopted, when the initial level of public R&D expenditures and when the initial share of distributed energy generation is high. Our results are robust to alternative specifications, to the inclusion of technology-specific effects and to the use of quality-adjusted patents as dependent variables. In the latter case, the estimated effect of lowering entry barriers and of knowledge diversity almost double on citation count relatively to patent count.renewable energy technology, patent, environmental policies, product market regulation, inequality