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ENERGIX-Stort program energi

Renewable energy as transition strategy

Awarded: NOK 7.8 mill.

-Climate change is the most serious problem facing the world at the present time. Solving it requires new low-emissions energy carriers, and this is a major innovation challenge. Against this background, RENTRANS has two main objectives. On the one hand it aims to explore aspects of the transition to a renewable energy system, both in Norway and internationally. On the other, it seeks to create a research and policy community that will continue to provide results for many years ahead. The reason for this dual approach is that technological transitions happen rather slowly, often over many decades. Managing the renewable transition therefore requires capabilities and competences that will outlive RENTRANS itself. Within RENTRANS, we argue that there are three basic obstacles to the diffusion of renewable energy technologies. The first is that cost structures of existing renewables are unfavourable, and therefore a sustained period of incremental innovation is needed to bring them down. The second problem is that we lack industrial capacity to produce renewables. Even if all European governments decided to switch to 50% renewable energy tomorrow, we would be unable to do it because we lack capacity to produce renewable energy equipment on the right scale. Thirdly, we have no programmes for radical innovation in sustainable energy technologies, a task which requires international collaboration. The project explores the innovation policy implications of these three challenges.

Climate change is the biggest single issue facing the world at the present time. This project is about the role of innovation policy in creating multiple renewable energy technologies, as the basis of a transition towards a low-emitting global economy. R enewable energy technologies are likely to support new industries and export sectors in years ahead, across many countries. The main question of this project is: How can Norway participate in this process and benefit from it? Norway have vast potentials f or increased renewable energy, however, the production has been stagnant sicce the mid 1990s. The production of energy from new renewable energy sources is very limited. What are the main challenges for increased production of renewable energy in Norway? Our approach is to focus on how new systems are constructed around emerging technologies. The dimensions of this are not fixed, but evolve over time due to the actions of different actors within the innovation system. We propose to explore the tools that actors and networks use to bring about change. The theoretical approach used to analyse the development project is labeled ?technological innovation system? (Jacobsson & Bergek, 2004) By approaching the formative phase of an innovation system with a focus on how actors, technology, markets and institutions co-evolve, we seek to provide a new approach for analysing emerging technologies for renewable energy. The empirical part of the project will analyse various key processes and activities which are reg arded as crucial for successful system building: knowledge development and experimentation; development of markets and infrastucture, and ability to mobilize powerful social groups to support the new technology. In addition the project will analyse the ro le of local and regional actors in the development of renewable power. Finally, the project will establish an arena for discussions of the role of renewable energy for a transition strategy for Norway.

Funding scheme:

ENERGIX-Stort program energi