248 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.

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.

A consumer hydrogen fuel pump in Germany

Adobe Stock

Policy Brief

The Geopolitics of Renewable Hydrogen

| May 2021

Renewables are widely perceived as an opportunity to shatter the hegemony of fossil fuel-rich states and democratize the energy landscape. Virtually all countries have access to some renewable energy resources (especially solar and wind power) and could thus substitute foreign supply with local resources. Our research shows, however, that the role countries are likely to assume in decarbonized energy systems will be based not only on their resource endowment but also on their policy choices.

Paper

The Coming AI Hackers

| April 2021

Hacking is generally thought of as something done to computer systems, but this conceptualization can be extended to any system of rules. The tax code, financial markets, and any system of laws can be hacked. This essay considers a world where AIs can be hackers. This is a generalization of specification gaming, where vulnerabilities and exploits of our social, economic, and political systems are discovered and exploited at computer speeds and scale.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter speaks at the 3rd Annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit

DoD/Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

Analysis & Opinions - The Hill

Our National Experiment in R&D for Clean Energy Just Turned 10

The authors recount the history of ARPA-E and describe how it has supported clean energy innovation in the United States. They argue that ARPA-E needs two things in the short term in order to increase its chances of success in the long term: resources and a leader who can channel the country's top science and engineering talent toward particularly tough technical challenges.

an operator inspects a photolithography tool used to manufacture these solar cells.

Daniel Derkacs/SolarJunction

Journal Article - Research Policy

Governments as Partners: The Role of Alliances in U.S. Cleantech Startup Innovation

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. 

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

2018 State of Digital Transformation

| October 2018

On June 12-13, 2018, digital HKS welcomed public sector digital services teams from around the world to share stories of success, talk about lessons learned, and discuss the challenges they face in transforming government. The teams convened all agreed on North Star goals of building platform services and putting users at the center; what remains much more difficult is identifying how teams in very different political and technology contexts should think about how to reach that end-state. In this report, digital HKS shares best practices we gleaned from this group, to start a broader conversation for digital services groups around the world about what comes next.