Energy

1293 Items

orca carbon capture plant

Belfer Center/Elizabeth Hanlon

Paper - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Prospects for Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage: Costs, Scale, and Funding

| Nov. 30, 2023

Al-Juaied and Whitmore examine the costs and prospects for direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS), and identify types of funding needed for early deployment for DACCS and building momentum for later widespread deployment. The challenges of implementing DACCS at very large scale further emphasize the need for urgent and widespread action to reduce emissions, which should continue to be the main priority for meeting climate goals.

wind turbines in distant field

Gary Scott/Unsplash

Press Release - University of California Berkeley

New Study Examines Drivers of Government Investment in Energy Innovation

    Author:
  • Mathew Burciaga
| Sep. 12, 2022

New forms of international cooperation and technology competition with China are the main drivers of public investment in energy innovation, though it remains insufficient to help meet climate goals.

solar panels at the Cochin International Airport in Kochi, Kerala state, India

AP Photo/R S Iyer

Journal Article - Innovation and Development

Catching-Up in Green Industries: The Role of Product Architecture

| Aug. 23, 2022

As latecomers to the industrialization process, developing countries may face barriers to upgrading from the production of mass-produced goods to higher-value technologies. Using a comparative qualitative case study focusing on three renewable energy technologies, this paper develops a typology of catching-up opportunities in green energy industries and finds that policymakers should target certain technologies in their industrial strategies based on certain technology characteristics, and should seek opportunities to capitalize on a local niche that creates a need for innovation.

Policy Brief

Database on U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Budgets for Energy Research, Development, & Demonstration (1978–2023R)

| Apr. 13, 2022

The attached document contains April 2022 updates to our database on U.S. government investments in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (ERD3) through the Department of Energy.

Swirling light trails

Federico Beccari/Unsplash

Policy Brief - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Technological Innovation and the Future of Energy Value Chains

| Apr. 08, 2022

The transition from energy systems dominated by fossil fuels to ones based on renewable electricity and carbon-free molecules will significantly impact existing value chains and forge new pathways and transformation steps from production to consumption. This transition will bring not only substantial cost challenges but also promises to dramatically alter stakeholders’ interactions along value chains.

Electricians install solar panels.

AP/Mary Altaffer

Report Chapter - Brookings Institution

Mexico’s Energy Reforms: A Blow to Realizing the Most Competitive and Dynamic Region in the World

| Feb. 28, 2022

In late 2017, Mexico made headlines as Italian company Enel bid what was then a world-record low price for renewable energy in the country’s third such energy auction. This development was possible due to the historical and sweeping energy reforms passed with broad support in Mexico in 2013. Then-President Enrique Peña Nieto had succeeded where previous Mexican presidents had failed, reversing decades of resource nationalism and overhauling the energy sector through constitutional reforms that gave the private sector a larger role and advantaged renewable energy in Mexico’s economy. The 2017 auction seemed to indicate Mexico’s bright future not only as a conventional oil producer, but also as a clean energy power.

Flag of the European Union against a blue sky

Christian Lue/Unsplash

Report - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

The Future of Renewable Hydrogen in the European Union: Market and Geopolitical Implications

This paper focuses on the market and geopolitical implications of renewable hydrogen adoption at scale in the European Union (EU). The authors analyze long-term strategies based on three reference scenarios in which the EU prioritizes a different strategic variable: energy independence, cost (optimization), or energy security. Developing competitive and secure hydrogen markets will require close coordination between policy, technology, capital, and society—and for EU countries to unite behind a shared long-term vision.

Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong, China, in 2019.

EDF Energy via Wikimedia Commons

Book Chapter - Cambridge University Press

Enabling a Significant Nuclear Role in China’s Decarbonization

| Dec. 02, 2021

While China is building nuclear reactors faster than any other country in the world, major constraints may limit nuclear energy’s ability to grow to the scale of hundreds of gigawatts that would be required for it to play a major part in decarbonizing China’s energy system. This chapter explores the major constraints on, and risks of, large-scale nuclear energy growth in China, and how both new policies and new technologies might address them. It focuses particularly on the two biggest constraints – economics and siting. Substantial government policies to support nuclear power and advanced reactor systems designed to address some of the key constraints are both likely to be needed for nuclear to have a chance of playing a major role in decarbonizing China’s energy system; nuclear energy’s role may be bigger in the second half of this century than in the first half.

Photo of a car with Hydrogen Fuel written on the side.

Photo by David Zalubowski/AP

Policy Brief

The European Union at a Crossroads: Unlocking Renewable Hydrogen’s Potential

| November 2021

The European Union (EU) is highly competitive in clean technologies manufacturing and thus well-positioned to benefit from the emergence of global hydrogen markets. But a narrow focus on short-term cost considerations could drive member states to implement national roadmaps with little or no coordination among themselves and hence little or no chance of competing globally.