Climate change policies call for a radical technological shift in the energy sector. The huge costs of greenhouse gas emissions abatement can be scaled down only if the development of low-carbon technologies will take place at an accelerated pace. But such progress has to confront with a large...

Understanding the long-term patterns of innovation in energy technologies is crucial to informing public policy planning in the context of climate change. This paper analyzes which of two common models of innovation over the technology life-cycle – the product-process innovation shift observed...

Geological carbon sequestration seems one of the promising options to address, in the near term, the global problem of climate change, since carbon sequestration technologies are in principle available today and their costs are expected to be affordable. Whereas extensive technological and...

This contribution discusses the policy-induced diffusion dynamics of environmental innovations. We use wind and solar power as examples of a new technology base of the electricity sector. This directly links to the renewable energy targets of “Europe 2020”; we reveal unforeseen and...

Power systems with increasing shares of wind and solar power generation have higher capital and lower operational costs than traditional technologies. This increases the importance of the cost of finance for total system cost. We quantify how renewable policy design can influence cost of finance...

The development of variable renewable energy (VRE) and their massive installation are some of the challenges that the economies of a large part of the world will have to face in the coming years to help ensure a reasonable sustainability of the planet. On the other hand, the advances that have...

Emission-free hydrogen (H2) is crucial to decarbonize energy supply and to tackle the climate crisis. To unlock the potential of H2, pipelines infrastructures and related investments are required to enable trade. However, it is uncertain what future H2 infrastructure will be needed. The paper...

A key element in the success of limiting mean global surface temperature rise to below 2°C will be transformation of the energy sector globally. In addition to implementing already-available options for more efficient use of energy and low-emissions energy supply, action is needed now to put in...

Mexico's low-carbon technology perspectives show lack of coherence with the rising ambition in climate change commitments, for which Mexico is internationally praised. The comparison of two recent energy reforms, corresponding to two administrations, explains this lack of coherence by, on the...