Athabasca River, Alberta, Canada. Water availability in the Athabasca River is expected to decline due to climate change in the future while oil sands development expands.
Rob Grover Photo
Land and Water Impacts of Oil Sands Production in Alberta
ETIP Associate Sarah Jordaan recommends improved analyses of oil sands products that compare land and water use with other transportation fuel pathways and use a regional perspective so local effects can be considered and mitigated in an Environmental Science and Technology article.
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
In Press 2012
"Oil Development in China: Current Status and Future Trends"
Energy Policy
By Linwei Ma, Feng Fu, Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, Zheng Li and Pei Liu
This paper attempts to present a full picture of the current status and future trends of China's oil development through system analysis. The authors design three scenarios of China's oil demand in 2030 and analyze policy implications for oil conservation, automotive energy development, and energy security. From their analysis, they draw some conclusions for policy decisions, such as controlling total oil consumption to avoid energy security risks, enhancing oil conservation in all sectors with the emphasis on road transportation, and increasing investment in oil production and refining to secure oil supply and reduce emissions.
February 29, 2012
"DOE Budget Authority for Energy Research, Development, & Demonstration Database"
By Kelly Sims Gallagher, Senior Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and Laura Diaz Anadon, Associate Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Director, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy
This document contains February 2012 updates to our database on U.S. government investments in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (ERD3) through the Department of Energy. The database, in Microsoft Excel format, tracks DOE appropriations from FY 1978–2011 and the FY 2012 and 2013 budget requests and includes funding for ERD3 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It also includes several charts.
April 2012
"Behind the Development of Technology: The Transition of Innovation Modes in China's Wind Turbine Manufacturing Industry"
Energy Policy, volume 43
By Peng Ru, Former Research Fellow, Energy Technology Policy Innovation Research Group/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 2007–2008, Qiang Zhi, Research Fellow, Energy Technology innovation Policy research group, Fang Zhang, Xiaotian Zhong, Jianqiang Li and Jun Su, Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 2001–2002
The market scale of China's wind turbine manufacturing industry has grown immensely. Despite China still having a limited capacity in terms of technology innovation, the institutional support has promoted the technology capability development of the wind turbine manufacturing industry. This paper explores the driving forces underlying this development by reviewing the transition of the innovation modes and the dynamic interactions among the technology capability, innovation modes, market formation, and wind energy policy. The innovation mode in China began with imitative innovation, then transitioned to cooperative innovation, and has more recently set its sights on attaining truly indigenous innovation. Public policy serves as a key driving force for the evolution of innovation modes, as well as the development of the market.
November 2011
"Transforming U.S. Energy Innovation"
By Laura Diaz Anadon, Associate Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Director, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom; Co-Principal Investigator, Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (ERD3) Policy Project, Gabriel Chan, Melissa Chan, Former Research Fellow, Energy Research, Development, Demonstration & Deployment Policy Project, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, January 2009–December 2010, Charles Jones, Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, Ruud Kempener, Former Research Fellow, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, 2009–2011, Audrey Lee, Former Research Fellow, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, 2009–2011, Nathaniel Logar, Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and Venkatesh "Venky" Narayanamurti, Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy; Professor of Physics, Harvard; Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Co-Principal Investigator, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group
The United States needs a revolution in energy technology innovation to meet the profound economic, environmental, and national security challenges that energy poses in the 21st century. Researchers at Harvard Kennedy School undertook a three-year project to develop actionable recommendations for transforming the U.S. energy innovation system. This research has led to five key recommendations for accelerating U.S. energy innovation.
December 2011
"Modern Energy Access to All in Rural India: An Integrated Implementation Strategy"
Energy Policy, issue 12, volume 39
By Balachandra Patil, Former Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program/Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, 2009–2010
Expanding energy access to the rural population of India presents a critical challenge for its government. The presence of 364 million people without access to electricity and 726 million who rely on biomass for cooking indicate both the failure of past policies and programs, and the need for a radical redesign of the current system. We propose an integrated implementation framework with recommendations for adopting business principles with innovative institutional, regulatory, financing and delivery mechanisms.
July 2011
"Will Electric Cars Transform the U.S. Vehicle Market?"
By Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program and Grant Lovellette
For the past forty years, United States Presidents have repeatedly called for a reduction in the country's dependence on fossil fuels in general and foreign oil specifically. Some officials advocate the electrification of the passenger vehicle fleet as a path to meeting this goal. The Obama administration has embraced a goal of having one million electric-powered vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, while others proposed a medium-term goal where electric vehicles would consist of 20% of the passenger vehicle fleet by 2030 — approximately 30 million electric vehicles. The technology itself is not in question; many of the global automobile companies are planning to sell plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and/or battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2012. The key question is, will Americans buy them?
May 2012
"The Price of Wind Power in China During its Expansion: Technology Adoption, Learning-by-doing, Economies of Scale, and Manufacturing Localization"
Energy Economics, issue 3, volume 34
By Yueming Qiu and Laura Diaz Anadon, Associate Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Director, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy
Using the bidding prices of participants in China's national wind project concession programs from 2003 to 2007, this paper built up a learning curve model to estimate the joint learning from learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching, with a novel knowledge stock metric based on technology adoption in China through both domestic technology development and international technology transfer. The paper describes, for the first time, the evolution of the price of wind power in China, and provides estimates of how technology adoption, experience building wind farm projects, wind turbine manufacturing localization, and wind farm economies of scale have influenced the price of wind power.