Government policy to stimulate sustainable energy innovation

Dr Matthew  Hannon, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

In the face of mounting environmental, energy security and economic pressures there is a growing demand for alternative energy technologies and business models that can satisfy our energy needs in a cleaner, cheaper and more secure fashion. Whilst energy innovation is by no means a new process we still remain unclear about the best way to stimulate sustainable energy innovation. With increasingly little time to meet our 2050 carbon reduction target, dwindling domestic fossil fuel reserves and concerns that oil prices will soon rebound it is essential that the correct policy mechanisms are put in place today to ensure that the energy technologies and business models of tomorrow are commercially viable and enjoy wide-scale deployment.

This session seeks to stimulate an informed discussion around how government policy could best facilitate technology and business model innovation capable of supplying sustainable, low-cost and secure energy to UK consumers. As such the following questions and others will be considered by the panel:

•           What balance should be struck between supply push and demand pull policies?

•           To what extent should we pick winners or let the market decide?

•           How important are innovation intermediaries in facilitating energy innovation?

•           Should innovation support be centralised (e.g. Fraunhofer model) or distributed?

•           How well placed are incumbent businesses to drive forward energy innovation?

•           What should be the balance between public and private investment in energy innovation?

•           At what level of governance should policy be designed and implemented (i.e. local, regional, national, and international)?

•           Should different policies be considered for different technologies (e.g. demand vs. supply-side)?

The invited panellists reflect the desperate need for a platform at BIEE’s bi-annual conference to enable earlier career professionals to present fresh new ideas and challenge existing ones about best-practice sustainable energy innovation policy. Furthermore, the panel has been carefully selected to much better represent the  heterogeneity of our research community. Finally, the panel offers a mix of contrasting but complementary perspectives on the key drivers of energy innovation, pooling expertise from both different disciplines (e.g. engineering, economics, environmental science) and sectors (i.e. private, public, third). The following dialogue panel nominees fulfil these criteria and the panel organiser has received confirmations from the majority of nominees that they are willing and able to participate:

•           Paula Kivimaa – Senior Research Fellow, SPRU, University of Sussex (confirmed)

•           Ajay Gambhir – Senior Climate Change Mitigation Policy Research Fellow, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London (confirmed)

•           Elizabeth Milsom – Project Manager Energy Innovation Delivery, DECC (confirmed)

•           Paul Westacott – Commercial Analyst, Origami Energy (confirmed)

•           Charlie Wilson – Lecturer in Energy & Climate Change, UEA (Confirmed)

It is proposed that the session is chaired by the session organiser (Dr. Matthew Hannon) and that the key outputs are captured by a scribe to formulate the basis for a post-conference discussion piece. In summary this dialogue session is critical to broadening horizons on the energy innovation debate.