Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Energy research and development

DOE FY09 Budget Request for Energy Research, Development & Demonstration – Commentary

Laura Diaz Anadon, Kelly Sims Gallagher and Matthew Bunn — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:52:42 -0500

Anadon, Gallagher, and Bunn offer their insight and analysis on the President's FY09 budget request for U.S. Department of Energy spending for energy research, development, and demonstration.

Returns to Scale in Carbon Capture and Storage Infrastructure and Deployment

Jeffrey Bielicki — Wed, 28 May 2008 11:23:23 -0500

In this Belfer Center discussion paper, Bielicki describes SimCCS, a cost-minimizing geospatial deployment model used to deploy CCS for a variety of combinations of CO2 sources and injection reservoirs. The purpose of SimCCS is to determine the returns to scale for CCS deployment and to unravel the determinants thereof.

Need for an Integrated Energy Modelling Institution in India

Ananth Chikkatur and Shoibal Chakravarty — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:40:59 -0500

ETIP's Ananth Chikkatur and Princeton's Shoibal Chakravarty write in India's Economic & Political Weekly about that need for a government-supported statutory energy modeling institution - the Bureau of Energy Information and Analysis - that can develop in-house modeling and analysis capacity for India.

Technical, Environmental, and Economic Assessment of Deploying Advanced Coal Power Technologies in the Chinese Context

Lifeng Zhao, Yunhan Xiao, Kelly Sims Gallagher, Bo Wang and Xiang Xu — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:19:07 -0500

The authors evaluate the differences in technical performance, environmental impact, and costs for capital and electricity for a variety of advanced coal power technologies based on the technological and economic levels in 2006 in China. This study investigates especially the economic gaps between Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle - the technology most able to capture CO2 at a relatively low cost - and other advanced coal power technologies.

Electrification of Energy

Juha Kiviluoma and Gustavo Collantes — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government organized a workshop on the Electrification of Energy.

Free: College Curriculum Package Simulates Oil Crisis

Eric Rosenbach — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:00:54 -0500

Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE), in collaboration with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, has created a free college curriculum box set that includes all of the materials needed to conduct an energy crisis simulation in your classroom. The exercise is based on Oil ShockWave™, SAFE's one-of-a-kind oil crisis simulation, which has featured participants such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Dan Yergin and former director of the CIA R. James Woolsey.

Energy R&D Policy: 'Embracing' Failure

Jack Johnston — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:03:11 -0500

Former ExxonMobil executive Jack Johnston presented on technology and how a more systematic approach to thinking about failure in complex systems could enable us to more effectively pursue technology as well as formulate and evolve policy.

Ending the Energy Stalemate: A Bipartisan Strategy To Meet America’s Energy Challenges

John P. Holdren — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:18:19 -0500

John P. Holdren provides the context for and an overview of the recommendations made by the National Commission on Energy Policy its 2004 and 2007 reports to the President and Congress of the United States.

DOE Budget Authority for Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Database

Kelly Sims Gallagher — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:42:46 -0500

This document contains 2008 updates to a database on U.S. government investments in energy research, development, and demonstration (ERD&D). The database, in Microsoft Excel format, tracks budget requests on ERD&D from 1978-2009 and includes several charts.

Application Oriented R&D: Aphorisms and Anecdotes

Robert Frosch — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:30:47 -0600

Dr. Frosch shares lessons from his experience trying to perform, and lead, application oriented R&D. Some of these lessons are encapsulated in aphorisms. Some aphorisms are presented, with explication, and illustrated with anecdotes from experience with the Navy, ARPA, NASA, and General Motors.

Socio-Political Evaluation of Energy Deployment (SPEED): An Integrated Research Framework Analyzing Energy Technology Deployment

Jennie Stephens, Elizabeth J. Wilson and Tarla Rai Peterson — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:15:56 -0600

This paper proposes a systematic, interdisciplinary framework for the integrated analysis of regulatory, legal, political, economic, and social factors that influence energy technology deployment decisions at the state level.

Economic Assessment of Deploying Advanced Coal Power Technologies in the Chinese Context

Lifeng Zhao — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:33:40 -0600

Zhao presents her and her colleagues' work on comparing a variety of advanced coal power technologies for China on technical, environmental, and cost bases.

Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group Launches New Energy R&D Project

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:02:26 -0600

The Belfer Center's Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group is launching a new three-year project to develop energy research policy recommendations, prepare annual budget commentaries, and assess energy technology innovation around the country.

Fuel for Thought

Madeline Drexler, Henry Lee and William Clark — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:19:02 -0600

As the Biofuel industry surges with investments and new entrepreneurial players, Kennedy School scholars are analyzing it working to develop new ways to create carbon-neutral fuels. Madeline Drexler writes on the Kennedy School's input on this emerging new way to lower greenhouse gas emissions and become less dependent on non-renewable energy resources.

Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being

John P. Holdren — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:29:19 -0600

"I would urge every scientist and engineer with an interest in the intersection of S&T with sustainable well-being...to 'tithe' 10% of your professional time and effort to working in these and other ways to increase the benefits of S&T for the human condition and to decrease the liabilities. If so much as a substantial fraction of the world's scientists and engineers resolved to do this much, the acceleration of progress toward sustainable well-being for all of Earth's inhabitants would surprise us all."

Professor John P. Holdren Moderates the Energy & Climate Panel at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting

John P. Holdren — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500

John P. Holdren, director of the Belfer Center's Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, moderated the Energy & Climate panel "Stabilizing the Climate: Pathways to Success" at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York on September 27, 2007.

Policy Options for Reducing Oil Consumption and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions from the U.S. Transportation Sector

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the current policy debate about how to effectively limit or reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. transportation sector.

Power to People: The Inside Story of AES and the Globalization of Electricity

Peter Grose — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Power to People is the story of electricity privatization, expanding global markets, and the transformation of an industry. It is also proof of the electrifying combination of innovation and good citizenship.

A Joint Workshop on IGCC & Co-Production and CO2 Capture & Storage

Lifeng Zhao — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Report on a workshop jointly organized by the Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Tariff-Based Incentives for Improving Coal-Power-Plant Efficiencies in India

Ananth Chikkatur, Ambuj Sagar, Nikit Abbyankar and N. Sreekumar — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Energy Policy article assessing the efficiency of coal-based power plants and its role in the performance of India's power sector.

Science and Technology in India: A Focus on Energy Innovation

Ananth Chikkatur — Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Presented at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, May 21, 2007.

Subjective Assessments of Personal Mobility: What Makes the Difference Between a Little and a Lot?

Gustavo Collantes and Patricia L. Mokhtarian — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

This study provides insight into the way individuals mentally process the amount of travel they do, which will increase our understanding of travel behavior and its motivations.

Incorporating Stakeholders' Perspectives Into Models of New Technology Diffusion: The Case of Fuel-Cell Vehicles

Gustavo Collantes — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

The extreme dependency on oil of ground transportation systems across the world – particularly in the United States – has become a weakness in national economies.

Assessing the President's FY08 Energy RD&D Budget Request

Kelly Sims Gallagher — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

An analysis of U.S. Government Investments in Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Database.

U.S. Government Investments in Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Database

Kelly Sims Gallagher, Ambuj Sagar, Diane Segal, Paul de Sa and John P. Holdren — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

U.S. Government Investments in Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Database: a database in Microsoft Excel format tracking budget requests on energy-technology research, development, and demonstraton (RD&D) from 1978–2008, including charts.

Energy and Sustainability

John P. Holdren — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Editorial in Science magazine's special issue on energy and sustainability.

Symposium 2006: Climate Change, Energy, and Developing Countries

Ananth Chikkatur, Ambuj Sagar and Hongyan He Oliver — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600

An analysis of the role of developing countries vis-a-vis the climate problem and the global energy situation must begin with an understanding of the role of energy in economic, social, and human development.

Towards a Better Technology Policy for Coal-Based Power in India

Ananth Chikkatur and Ambuj Sagar — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600

This chapter of the Proceedings of the 1st National Conference on Advances in Energy Research highlights the role of the coal sector.

Energy-Technology Innovation

Kelly Sims Gallagher, Ambuj Sagar and John P. Holdren — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600

This paper examines the state of understanding of energy-technology innovation and its role in augmenting energy resources, enhancing the quality of energy services, and reducing the economic, environmental, or political costs associated with energy supply and use.

Technological Innovation in the Energy Sector: R&D, Deployment, and Learning-by-Doing

Ambuj Sagar and Bob van der Zwaan — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0600

This paper discusses aspects of R&D and ‘learning-by-doing,’ the main contributors to technological change that are complementary yet inter-linked.