Agency identifies four innovation focus areas in 2018 Global Innovation Index report The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has outlined the innovation priorities needed to accelerate the transition to a sustainable energy system. The Agency authored a chapter of the recently published 2018 Global Innovation Index (GII) report, named Innovation Driving the Energy Transition in which four central policy-level innovation recommendations are outlined as critical to scaling-up renewable energy deployment. The chapter also charts the development of various renewable technologies, categorising their viability and deployment progress. Applications seen as being ‘on track’ include wind and solar PV power technologies together with electric vehicle development, while areas in need of further innovations to improve their economics and adoption rates include biofuels and solar thermal heat applications, the chapter highlights.
The 11th edition of the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) global innovation index report, themed Energizing the World with Innovation analysed the state of energy sector innovation, identifying areas where further effort is required, and where breakthroughs in fields such as energy production, storage, distribution, consumption, and decarbonisation are taking place. IRENA’s chapter makes the following policy-level recommendations: 1. Foster a system wide approach to innovation, beyond research and development Innovations in technology, together with innovative approaches to enabling infrastructure, business models and system operation, must all be pursued with equal assiduousness, IRENA points out. “Leveraging synergies between innovations across all sectors and components of the energy system, and involving all actors, is crucial for the transition,” said Dolf Gielen, Director of IRENA’s Innovation and Technology Centre. 2. Strengthen international cooperation to nurture innovation Innovation is central to decarbonising the energy sector, and international cooperation is critical to innovation, IRENA points out. To stimulate the breakthroughs necessary to advance the energy transition, existing platforms designed to foster international collaboration should be […]