Recently, doctoral student Zhu Zhishuang and professor Liao Hua's paper “The role of public energy R&D in energy conservation and transition: Experiences from IEA countries” was published in the international journal《Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews》.

   Energy research and development (R&D) is accompanied by high risks and externalities. Governments across countries have different support degrees for energy R&D. Due to various confounding factors and crowding out effects, there are still controversies about the contributions of energy R&D policy. This paper assesses the impact of energy R&D policies on energy efficiency and energy transition in member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

   The results show that the average sensitivity of energy structure cleaning process to government energy R & D support is greater than that of energy efficiency to R & D support. The impact mechanism of energy R & D policy can be explained through the channel of energy innovation (represented by patents). The effectiveness of energy R & D policies varies among different types of countries. For the countries with smaller land areas or for those that are either oil-deficient or nonfederal, the effects of public energy R&D expenditure in promoting energy transition toward cleaner energy are more significant. For countries with larger land areas, or non-federal, the effects of energy R&D policies in promoting energy efficiency are more obvious. In the case of limited government energy R & D support funds, this research conclusion provides a reference for optimizing the investment structure of energy R & D funds.

Paper Details:

Zhu Z, Liao H, Liu L. 2021. The role of public energy R&D in energy conservation and transition: Experiences from IEA countries. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 143: 110978.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110978