US RD&D: Make it more inclusive, more impactful
By Kelly Sims Gallagher
The International Energy Agency’s recent Clean Energy Innovation assessment is that more than 50% of the technologies needed for the attainment of net zero greenhouse gas emissions targets by 2050 are not yet commercialized and need rapid acceleration. Considering the global climate crisis, research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) spending on clean energy needs to be higher and more effective. Bipartisan support for spending on clean energy innovation has been a fixture of the US Congress over the past decade. Now as Congress debates the path forward for this investment, more attention should be given to how to improve outcomes from new appropriations.
In a new Climate Policy Lab policy brief entitled “Promoting Inclusive and Impactful Research, Development, and Demonstration Programs,” I argue, together with co-author Gregory Nemet, (and in line with important assessments such as those of the International Energy Agency and the U.S. National Academy of Science) that deep decarbonization now requires innovation to take place on a more rapid timeline. To achieve this, federal spending should prioritize establishing platforms for open source, collaborative research. Rather than have researchers from separate institutions and sectors competing with one another in separately funded silos, the US Department of Energy should foster collaborative platforms, as has worked in the past in semi-conductor roadmaps. Such collaborative platforms should also be used for demonstration of cutting edge technologies.
A more inclusive approach that promotes diversity of researchers will also ensure that different perspectives improve innovation outcomes. Increased attention should be given to expanding the number of regional innovation hubs that tap the needs and comparative advantages of local and regional economies. Establishment of these hubs should be done after extensive consultation with local firms, academic and research institutions, community leaders, and government officials so that each regional innovation hub takes advantage of regional assets and specialties and fosters economic growth and diversification appropriate to each region. In addition, DOE should establish a national laboratory at an historically black college and university (HBCU). DOE should also incorporate communities and equity groups in the process of goal setting within DOE, including representatives of workers whose jobs are being eliminated by the energy transition.
Overall, we believe more transparency is needed on the racial, gender, and other characteristics of the recipients of energy innovation investments. The distribution of the broader benefits or outcomes of energy innovation is essentially unknown. In a recent analysis of energy justice programs in the United States, just 6% of them were national programs, only three were at DOE (the Energy Transitions Initiative, the Weatherization Assistance Program, and the National Incubator Initiative for Clean Energy (NIICE). The IEA’s World Energy Investment Outlook notes the importance of venture capital and startup firms in energy technology innovation. Notably, in 2020, only 2.1 percent of overall US venture capital went to companies whose CEO was a woman, despite a sizable increase in the number of women-owned businesses. Only about half of U.S. startups have at least one woman in an executive position in 2020, according to Silicon Valley Bank’s annual survey.
Beyond gender and racial data on recipients of clean energy innovation grants, the regional distribution of low carbon RD&D funding geographically across the US also needs more conscious transparency. In general, federal RD&D funding is highly concentrated, with 115 institutions receiving 75 percent of all academic R&D funds from federal sources. Given that the federal government funds as much as 42 percent of all academic R&D, adding regional and diversity criteria for distribution of clean tech RD&D funds is critical to rectifying inequities that have plagued US clean energy innovation systems in the past.∎
To read the full brief, click here.
Kelly Sims Gallagher is the Academic Dean and Professor of Energy and Environmental Policy at The Fletcher School, Tufts University. She is the Director of the Climate Policy Lab and co-director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy.