Accelerating innovation in clean energy technologies is a policy priority for governments around the world aiming to mitigate climate change and to provide affordable energy. Most research has focused on the role of governments financing R&D and steering market demand, but there is a more limited understanding of the role of direct government interactions with startups across all sectors. The authors  propose and evaluate the value-creation mechanisms of network resources from different types of partners for startups, highlighting the unique resources of government partners for cleantech startups. 

The attached document contains March 2018 updates to our database on U.S. government investments in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (ERD3) through the Department of Energy.

Following a decade of unprecedented investment, China now has the world's largest installed base of wind power capacity. Yet, despite siting most wind farms in the wind-rich Northern and Western provinces, electricity generation from Chinese wind farms has not reached the performance benchmarks of the United States and many other advanced economies. This has resulted in lower environmental, economic, and health benefits than anticipated. The authors develop a framework to explain the performance of the Chinese and US wind sectors, accounting for a comprehensive set of driving factors.

In this article, the authors review the state of the art of ocean energy in desalination. It explores different sources of energy from the ocean that include electricity generation, as well as mechanical force and thermal energy and salinity gradients that can also be directly harnessed for powering the desalination processes. They also examine recent advances in scaling up for commercial deployment and discuss relevant cost, environmental, and social concerns.

This report recommends policies and actions to improve the return on investment the U.S. government makes in sponsoring research and development (R&D) at the Department of Energy's (DOE) seventeen National Laboratories ("Labs"). While the Labs make a unique and significant contribution to all of the Department of Energy's missions, the authors develop the idea that for the Labs to fully support DOE's energy transformation goals, their R&D management practices need to be updated to better reflect current research into innovation systems and management. They also highlight the necessity of Lab interactions with industry in order to impact the nation's energy infrastructure investment, which is, for the most part, privately held.

As the window of opportunity to avert dangerous climate change closes, the authors argue that we urgently need to take stock of government initiatives that accelerate innovation in energy technologies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. What works and why?

President Trump has proposed severe cuts to US government spending on energy research, development and demonstration, but Congress has the 'power of the purse' and can rescue US energy innovation. If serious cuts are enacted, the pace of innovation will slow, harming the economy, energy security and global environmental quality.

The attached document contains the June 2017 updates to the authors' database on U.S. government investments in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (ERD3) through the Department of Energy.

A Belfer Center science and technology team traveled to Kuwait in March to take part in a collaborative workshop with the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Science (KFAS) on “Science and Technology in the GCC: Building Research Capacity and Vital Linkages.”

As the threats of climate change and economic instability loom large, public energy investment can seem like roll of the dice. Now, new research has analyzed scientific publications to identify the "good bets" for governments committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions even in the face of growing constraints on public R&D budgets.