Into the Complexity of Innovation: the Energy Innovation Academy

Takeaways from the first FSR Energy Innovation Academy

On 28-30 November in Florence, the FSR hosted its first Energy Innovation Academy, organised by the recently launched FSR Energy Innovation Area and the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI) of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET).

Under the scientific organisation of Miguel Vazquez (FSR), researchers and practitioners with different backgrounds presented their current work on innovation, taking place in the energy sector.

The innovation wave of the last years adds a new dimension to shape the evolution of the electricity industry: innovation policies. Transitions imply disruptive innovations and should be guided by policies that facilitate structural change and smooth out the process.

The Energy Innovation Academy has been launched to promote academic pluralism and exchange of views and methodologies among the participants. 

What do we mean with ‘complexity’ and ‘innovation’?

A concrete example by John Smith, participant of the Academy, interviewed by Tim Schittekatte (FSR). Listen to the podcast:

Find all the presentations online:

• Digitalisation and energy | Jean-Michel Glachant
• Financing and innovation in energy transitions | Bjarne Steffen
• Nothing new under the sun? Mapping learning pathways for wind, solar PV and biomass in relation to local and national promotion policies in selected countries | Gustavo Onofre Andreao
• The evolution of European TSO business model | Andrea Biancardi
• Energy efficiency and emissions in maritime shipping: blockchain technology applications in regulatory processes | Thomas Brewer
• An ecological stock-flow consistent approach to macroeconomic stability, entropy and chaos | John Smith
• Areva, EDF, and the economic viability of the closed fuel cycle | Ryan T. Brown
• Innovation in the Colombian electricity industry: the companies’ role and policy implications | Grace Quiceno
• A Dystopian Keynes meeting Schumpeter (DSK) model to represent a relationship between the energy sector and heterogeneous financial actors | Mariana Maria
• New ecosystems in electricity retailing | Pilar Vazquez
• Behavioural economics in energy industries | Michelle Hallack
• The dynamics of low carbon investment risks: a comparative assessment of solar PV and wind onshore investments in Germany, Italy and the UK | Florian Egli
• The relation between wind and solar power on electricity price level and volatility | Iulia Falcan
• Disruptive innovation in the EU’s natural gas sector that maintains the status quo | John Szabo
• Overcoming barriers to green technology diffusion: an agent-based approach on directed technological change and learning | Kerstin Hotte
• Material requirements for global renewable energy storage | Piero Carlo dos Reis
• Fueling the engines of liberation with cleaner cooking fuel: evidence from Indonesia | Jeonghwan Yun
• The regime building of low-carbon energy transition: concepts from the evolutionary theory | Felipe Botelho Tavares
• Complex networks approach in the evolution of the bioenergy technological frontier | Carolina da Silveira Bueno
• The role of regulation in energy transitions | Miguel Vazquez
• Regional cooperation in the EU | Javier Gómez
• Complex adaptive systems thinking in EU energy law | Gijs Kreeft
• A changing future for natural gas in the Netherlands – energy, the public, and institutional re-design | Toyah Rodhouse
• Regulating innovation and technology in the pursuit of EU’s energy goals for 2030 | Gokce Mete
• Solar energy via distributed Generation: proposals for a new legal framework for the Brazilian electricity sector | Felipe Barroco Fontes Cunha
• Incentive regulation of electricity distribution networks – lessons from UK’s experience | Madoka Sawabe
• Quantification of economy-wide rebound effects | Anne Berner
• Regulation of energy prosumers in New Zealand | Daniela Aguilar Abaunza

Browse the Gallery of the Academy:

Energy Innovation: a new area at FSR!

In the context of the Energy Innovation Academy, the FSR Director Jean-Michel Glachant interviewed Miguel Vazquez, Head of the new FSR Area, a platform for research, training and policy discussion on Energy Innovation, facing challenges posed by complexity and uncertainty. Listen to the podcast: 

Would you like to know more about the Energy Innovation Area? Visit the webpage!

FSR launched a new blog series on Energy Innovation. Contact us for collaborations.

Follow #FSREnergyInnovation on Twitter: