Policy Briefs & Testimonies

44 Items

steel mill blast furnace

AP Photo/Martin Meissner

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

Green Hydrogen Industrial Value Chains: Geopolitical and Market Implications

| Feb. 09, 2023

Green hydrogen is likely to play a pivotal role in a carbon-free future, as its adoption will enable the decarbonization of energy-intensive industrial processes whose emissions are hard to abate through simple electrification—such as steel and cement production. However, to take advantage of the economic opportunities created by its adoption at scale, countries will need to rethink the roles they could play in a new energy landscape and define strategic industrial policies accordingly.

Man in hardhat walks between floating solar panels on a lake

AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File

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

Combining Technology-Push and Demand-Pull Policies to Create More and Better Energy Jobs

| Sep. 15, 2022

Policymakers guiding their economies to a low-carbon, prosperous future must strike the right balance between technology-push and demand-pull. The rapid build-out of solar photovoltaics in recent years has revealed the benefits of generous demand-pull policies, but also their limits. In this policy brief, the authors show why combining robust demand-pull and technology-push policies results in more effective policy mixes that go beyond innovation and deployment to help competitive domestic industries create more and better jobs.

close up of gray metal chain

Aida L/Unsplash

Policy Brief - Italian Institute for International Political Studies

Technological Innovation and the Energy Value Chains in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy

| July 28, 2022

Recent events have highlighted how wars, pandemics, and even supply chain issues can quickly blunt existing efforts and policies to address climate change. The solution cannot lie in globalization, argue authors De Blasio and Zheng, but instead in a long-term systemic focus on clean technology innovation. The path ahead will require a collective understanding of how developing and deploying the needed clean technology innovation will affect value chains, markets, and geopolitics.

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.

Dominion Energy's 12 megawatt pilot project near Virginia Beach

AP/Michael Dwyer

Policy Brief

Offshore Wind in the Eastern United States

| December 2021

If wind is to play a significant role in decarbonizing the electricity sector in the densely populated northeast section of the United States, a substantial proportion of the investment must occur offshore, as onshore wind speeds and available land area are limited. Investing in offshore wind could lead to significant economic and environmental benefits, but significant barriers to achieving these benefits remain.

Policy Brief

The Role of Blockchain in Green Hydrogen Value Chains

| November 2021

As energy systems increasingly evolve from centralized to decentralized, from “grey” to “green,” stakeholders will need to efficiently account for and track emissions and green molecules in a transparent, secure, and standardized way, and must be able to do so along value chains from production to consumption.

A sign indicates a hydrogen fuel option at a newly opened refueling station in Munich, Monday, March 26, 2007.

AP Photo/Diether Endlicher

Policy Brief

Hydrogen Deployment at Scale: The Infrastructure Challenge

Clean hydrogen is experiencing unprecedented momentum as confidence in its ability to accelerate decarbonization efforts across multiple sectors is rising. New projects are announced almost every week. For example, an international developer, Intercontinental Energy, plans to build a plant in Oman that will produce almost 2 million tons of clean hydrogen and 10 million tons of clean ammonia. Dozens of other large-scale projects and several hundred smaller ones are already in the planning stage. Similarly, on the demand side, hydrogen is gaining support from customers. Prominent off-takers such as oil majors like Shell and bp, steelmakers like ThyssenKrupp, and world-leading ammonia producers like Yara are working on making a clean hydrogen economy a reality.

Policy Brief

Sustainable Mobility: Renewable Hydrogen in the Transport Sector

| June 2021

Renewable hydrogen holds promise in sustainable mobility applications, whether by powering fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) like cars, trucks, and trains or as a feedstock for synthetic fuels for ships and airplanes. Fuel cells convert hydrogen-rich fuels into electricity through a chemical reaction. FCEVs use a fuel cell, rather than a battery, to power electric motors, and operate near-silently and produce no tailpipe emissions. 

A hydrogen fuel cell in a workshop

Adobe Stock

Policy Brief

China: The Renewable Hydrogen Superpower?

| May 2021

Renewable hydrogen offers significant advantages for China. It can help Beijing meet its climate and pollution goals—at a time when coal continues to dominate—while avoiding increased reliance on imported fuels. As a readily dispatchable means of storing energy, hydrogen can help to address intermittency and curtailment issues as renewable energy increases its share of China’s energy mix. As a sustainable mobility energy carrier, it can power fuel-cell electric vehicles or be the base for synthetic fuels. Finally, renewable hydrogen can open new avenues for developing clean technology manufactured goods for both internal and export markets.

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.