Accelerated deployment of renewable energy: econometric models of innovation systems to determine accelerating and limiting factors

Research Project, 2016 – 2018

The development of renewable energy technologies depends on many factors, and governments have a large variety of policy measures to stimulate the development and use of these technologies. They can make available funds for research, give subsidies, set targets for minimum use, introduce taxes on carbon emissions, etc.

In this research project, we will analyse historical effects of policies on research and industrial activity, and the resulting development and use of a number of renewable energy technologies. We will compare experiences of a large group of countries, and a long period of time.

With the use of statistical models we can identify, for example, whether more research funding also leads to more installations of wind turbines. Such models can also determine if this is a strong effect, i.e., if twice as much research funding results in twice as much installations or only 10 percent more. Similarly, we can compare whether research funding or carbon taxes have a bigger effect on installations. Such information will be very useful for policy makers. They can better target the current weaknesses of the renewables sectors, and move more quickly towards a fully sustainable energy supply.