IGA-525M: Energy Innovation Policy

Innovation in energy technologies is necessary to confront profound challenges facing countries all over the world.  Concerns regarding resource availability, the environment, health, national security, competitiveness, and access are driving government efforts to accelerate innovation in energy supply, end-use, and storage technologies.  This course will cover the basic frameworks for analyzing technology innovation systems (focusing on technology development stages, actors and institutions, and innovation functions), and the range of available policy tools (including research and development funding, tax incentives and prizes, and performance standards).  Students will become familiar with the complexity of measuring the returns of innovation programs, designing programs in a world with international technology flows, integrating water and land-use considerations, and identifying the factors that shape technological change (including the role of intellectual property rights and technology spillovers).  This course combines theoretical, quantitative, and comparative approaches. The latter is accomplished through case studies, which will focus on the path from invention to commercialization of various energy technologies, as well as the recent energy innovation efforts of various governments.  The module is designed to complement IGA 502M “Innovation, Science & Technology Policy and the Public Good” with an in-depth focus on energy.