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Recent national trends in investments in global energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) are inconsistent around the world. Public RD&D investments in energy are the metric most commonly used in international comparative assessments of energy-technology innovation, and the metric employed in this article. Overall, the data indicate that International Energy Agency (IEA) member country government investments have been volatile: they peaked in the late 1970s, declined during the subsequent two decades, bottomed out in 1997, and then began to gradually grow again during the 2000s. The allocation of funding for different energy-technology areas also varies hugely across different countries, but investments in fossil fuel and nuclear technologies continue to dominate spending. We have very poor data for private investments, but it is very likely that they have decreased as a result of the recent recession. Despite their increasing significance in the world's energy sector, little is known about public or private energy innovation investments in the rapidly developing countries. None of the six ‘BRIMCS’ countries reviewed here are members of the IEA, which is one of the few agencies that collects international statistical data on energy RD&D budgets. Like energy RD&D patterns in the United States and other IEA countries, BRIMCS country energy RD&D appears to take place predominantly in fossil fuel and nuclear technologies

Benefits of increasing the renewable energy (RE) share in the total energy mix include better energy security, carbon dioxide emission reductions and improved human health. This paper identifies the potential of RE technologies and role of innovation to double the global RE share from 18% to 36% between 2010 and 2030. As a first step, a Reference Case is developed based on national energy plans of 26 countries which increases the RE share to 21% by 2030. Next, the realizable potential of RE technologies is estimated beyond the Reference Case at country and sector levels. By aggregating country potentials, this paper reveals that the global RE share can double to 36% by 2030. Despite differences in starting points and resource potentials, there is a role for each country in achieving a doubling. For many countries their Reference Cases result in low RE shares and many countries are just beginning to explore ways to increase RE use. The paper identifies action areas where innovation can increase technology development and improve cost-effectiveness, thereby accelerating global RE deployment. More research is required to specify these action areas for individual countries and specific technologies, as well as to identify policy needs to address them.

Our efforts have been greatly enriched by the time and the wisdom that our ERD3 Board has so generously provided over the course of this project.We also thank John P. Holdren and Kelly Sims Gallagher for their invaluable guidance and assistance in the early stages of this project; Henry Lee for his thoughtful feedback and helpful suggestions throughout the project; Gregory Nemet both for his feedback on the report and for sharing his time and knowledge so generously while he was with us as a visiting scholar from January through July The goal of the ERD3 project, which was funded by a generous grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, was to produce and to promote a comprehensive set of recommendations to help the U.S. administration accelerate the development and deployment of low-carbon energy technologies.The core members of the ERD3 project are: (a) to develop a methodology for assessing opportunities in energy research, development, and demonstration (ERD&D) investment, and to produce a set of comprehensive recommendations for the U.S. administration's investment in ERD&D; (b) to prepare an annual analysis of and set of recommendations for the Department of Energy's ERD&D budget, including, but not limited to, climate-change-related technologies; and (c) to understand the private sector's current role in the carrying out and funding of ERD&D, and in the drawing of conclusions about effective structures of public-private undertakings, areas of opportunity, and strategies for international cooperation in energy technology innovation.Over the past three years, the ERD3 project has worked to develop and to implement a methodology for designing an expanded portfolio of federal ERD&D activities; has investigated the role that the private sector and public-private partnerships play in energy innovation in the United States; has identified ways to improve the effectiveness of public energy innovation institutions; and has analyzed how the U.S. government could improve the effectiveness of its international collaboration efforts on energy innovation. This research was informed by interviews, surveys, modeling exercises, and literature reviews.In addition to this report, the members of the ERD3 project evaluated the U.S. federal annual spending on energy research, development, and demonstration. The project's assessments were released with policy recommendations on how the appropriations could be improved in order to better align with the national and global need to develop and to deploy clean energy technologies. This effort built on earlier efforts of the Energy Technology Innovation Policy (ETIP) group, which has been monitoring the federal ERD&D expenditures since 1978.The ERD3 project has benefitted from the advice of a distinguished Advisory Committee with members from academia, industry, and the nonprofit sector (listed below). This report contains the project's final analysis and recommendations on how to transform U.S. energy innovation. Bonifacio Garcia PorrasMember of the Cabinet EU Energy Commissi...