Researchers Draft Blueprint to Boost Energy Innovation

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http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/21514/researchers_draft_blueprint_to_boost_energy_innovation.html

Researchers Draft Blueprint to Boost Energy Innovation

Three-Year Project calls for doubling investment, adopting policy changes

Press Release, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

November 22, 2011

Author: James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Energy Technology Innovation Policy; Environment and Natural Resources; Science, Technology, and Public Policy



CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The U.S. government could save the economy hundreds of billions of dollars per year by 2050 by spending a few billion dollars more a year to spur innovations in energy technology, according to a new report by researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Achieving major cuts in carbon emissions in the process will also require policies that put a substantial price on carbon or set clean energy standards, the researchers find.
The report is the result of a three-year project to develop a set of actionable recommendations to achieve “a revolution in energy technology innovation.”

The project, part of the http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/project/10/energy_technology_innovation_policy.html">Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) research group in the Kennedy School’s http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/">Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, included the first survey ever conducted of the full spectrum of U.S. businesses involved in energy innovation, identifying the key drivers of private-sector investments in energy innovation.

The researchers also surveyed more than 100 experts working with an array of energy technologies to get their recommendations for energy R&D funding and their projections of cost and performance under different R&D scenarios. They then used the experts’ input to conduct extensive economic modeling on the impact of federal R&D investments and other policies (such as a clean energy standard) on economic, environmental, and security goals.

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