Energy | Article
On the Selection of Financing Instruments to Push the Development of New Technologies: Application to clean energy technologies
10 May 2012
BY: Luis Olmos, RUESTER Sophia, LIONG Siok Jen
Energy Policy, 2012, 43, 252–266
Achieving climate policy goals requires mobilizing public funds to bring still immature clean technologies to competitiveness and create new technological options. The format of direct public support must be tailored to the characteristics of technologies addressed. Based on the experience accumulated with innovation programs, we have identified those features of innovation that should directly condition the choice of direct support instruments. These include the funding gap between the cost of innovation activities and the amount of private funds leveraged; the ability of technologies targeted to compete for public funds in the market; the probability that these technologies fail to reach the market; and the type of entity best suited to conduct these activities. Clean innovation features are matched to those of direct support instruments to provide recommendations on the use to be made of each type of instrument. Given the large financing gap of most clean energy innovation projects, public grants and contracts should finance a large part of clean pre-deployment innovation. However, public loans, equity investments, prizes and tax credits or rebates can successfully support certain innovation processes at a lower public cost. Principles derived are applied to identify the instrument best suited to a case example.
logo cadmus Read it on Cadmus Download in open access

LATEST FSR PUBLICATIONS

Other
Rail has a key role to play in making transport more efficient and sustainable in the EU and elsewhere. However, increasing passenger and cargo volumes require investment in infrastructure, and [...]
Technical Report
In this work, we present the major application and impact areas of Contracts-for-Difference (CfDs) in a European context, describe the most relevant design dimensions and discuss several design packages for [...]
Other
After years of record announcements, frantic policy development and the establishment of substantial public support mechanisms, the clean hydrogen sector is nearing an inflexion point. Many clean hydrogen projects have [...]
Other
The safeguarding of critical offshore energy infrastructure has assumed a heightened level of urgency in the wake of the Nord Stream pipeline explosions in September 2022 and the suspected sabotage [...]
Other
The Performance Review Commission (PRC) is an independent body supported by EUROCONTROL with a remit to review and report on European air traffic management (ATM) performance. While performance has improved [...]
Technical Report
As part of the LIFE COASE project, the first Net Zero Carbon Market Policy Dialogue (NZCMPD) was held in September 2023 to discuss the latest developments and challenges faced by [...]

Join our community

To meet, discuss and learn in the channel that suits you best.

scroll

top