Europeanisation of energy-technological innovation systems: drivers, consequences and strategic challenges for Norway

The 2008 EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) aimed at improving the management of EU research and innovation efforts on low-carbon technologies. Efforts would be increased, focusing on priority technologies and full-scale industrial demonstration projects for more efficient resource utilisation. The main goal was to accelerate innovation (market commercialisation) for low-carbon technologies, to help in accomplishing energy and climate policy objectives and strengthen international competitiveness in the technology industry. The SET Plan governance system aimed at promoting coordination of efforts between businesses and research institutions. Representatives from member states would supervise and approve these efforts and help to ensure financing through coordination of national research and innovation programmes. The European Commission would then co-ordinate EU programmes around the priorities of the Plan, to ensure the Europeanization of national innovation systems in energy technology. Our project has analysed the establishment and implementation of the SET Plan as part of EU energy and climate policy, and has examined the consequences of Europeanization for Norwegian energy and technology interests. Our analyses have drawn on central political science perspectives on EU Integration and policy development. Central here is whether the SET Plan reflects member-state interests or those of a broader group of actors and institutions at the EU level. The creation of the SET Plan can best be understood by perspectives predicting the influence of a broad group of actors at national and EU levels. The idea of strengthening strategic management of innovation efforts in energy technology was developed by the Commission after inputs from industry and research groups. An important prerequisite for the Plan to be adopted was that EU member states accepted shared competence with EU institutions for research & innovation and energy policies. The choice of priority technologies reflected a compromise of interests among member states, energy industry groups and EU institutions. The portfolio of prioritised technologies (mainly renewable energy technologies and CCS) instrumentally promoted political agreement on the full energy and climate policy package. The governance system, based on voluntary coordination, reflected member-state interests in retaining national control over resource use. Implementation of the SET Plan is best understood by seeing the outcome as influenced by a broad group of stakeholders, but also by lack of binding obligations. Implementation has been characterised by delays and problems in matching funding programmes to envisaged priorities. The Plan has been expanded with several prioritised technologies to adapt it to appropriations actually made and has thus had a limited role as a steering instrument. Appropriations for energy research and innovation has been too low to realize the Plan in its entirety. Much of the total effort has concerned research on relatively immature technologies with limited effects for market introduction of new products. Realising full-scale demonstration projects has generally been a major challenge, especially as regards CCS. Actors have not been fully committed to the Plan, and there have been conflicts of interest as to prioritization of technologies and distribution of financial resources. The SET Plan governance system, based on voluntary cooperation without proper sanction mechanism for non-cooperative behaviour, has proven insufficient to ensure full implementation. In addition comes the mismatch between who controls the SET Plan and who determines the EU's common funding programmes. Variation in the realization of full-scale demonstration projects can be explained by differing market prospects and thereby different risks for the technologies involved. Market outlook is affected by the full EU climate and energy policy package, including the Emissions Trading System and the Renewable Energy Directive, with member-state implementation through adoption of policy instruments to promote demand for low-carbon energy technologies. Thus there has been less Europeanization of national innovation systems for energy technology than intended. Thus, the Plan has had only modest direct impact on Norwegian technology policy and energy technology actors. Nevertheless, Norwegian technology development is considerably influenced by EU?s total energy and climate policy, which also defines future international market prospects for the various technologies involved.

The project analyses the establishment and implementation of the 2008 European Union Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) aimed at co-ordinating the efforts of the Community, Member States and industry for the creation of a critical mass of project s and actors to spur development and commercialisation of low-carbon technologies. Part of this SET-Plan were European Technology Platforms (ETPs) and European Industrial Initiatives (EIIs), co-ordinating mechanisms for selecting specific technology field s and projects for EU-level funding. The SET-Plan represented a step forward for the co-ordination of national technology push policies at the EU-level. This loosening of national control is an interesting puzzle, since member states have earlier viewed t echnology policy as a crucial strategic instrument to support industrial development and competitiveness at the national level. The project analyses how and why the SET-Plan came into being, and why specific low-carbon technologies were given priority a mong the larger set of possible options. It next analyses implementation of the SET-Plan, assessing first the relative performance of different technology platforms and industrial initiatives and next, analysing why differences emerged in performance betw een the technology inititives. The project finally assesses how Norwegian energy technology agents (industries and government agencies) have engaged in the SET-Plan and emerging transnational innovation networks and discusses strategies for the Norwegian Government and industries to become proactively involved in the new EU-level energy technology policy