EnFo-2030: Strategic Project “Trends and Perspectives of the ‘Energiewende’”; Part B: Development and Application of Methods for the Prioritisation of Topics and Measures in Energy Research in the Context of the ‘Energiewende’

Tasks

The sixth energy research programme of the German federal government from 2011 characterises the guidelines for public policies to support the development and deployment of new and innovative energy technologies. The main target of the programme is to successfully realise the various energy- and climate-policy goals of the so called Energiekonzept and the accompanying fundamental transformation of the energy system in Germany. However, the technical, economic, political and social assumptions and conditions which the energy research programme builds upon are necessarily subject to changes over time, which can only partly be foreseen and taken into account. The focus and guidelines of publicly financed energy research as defined by the research programme therefore have to be evaluated and, if necessary, revised regularly. EnFo-2030 contributes to exactly this process of evaluation and redesign of the energy research programme more than five years after the announcement of the Energiewende.

Parallel to the complementary project part A “Technologies for the Energiewende”, EnFo-2030 uses a top-down approach to identify and define potential guidelines and central issues for future state funded energy research. To derive the need for energy research, the project on the one hand surveys the current status of the Energiewende and the contributions of the sixth energy research programme to the implementation of the Energiewende. It contrasts these observations with the energy and climate policy goals of the Energiewende, in particular with respect to de facto prioritisations of specific goals implicitly given by current legislation or other framework conditions of the Energiewende. On the other hand, the future need for energy research arises from already occurred and foreseeable changes in the overall environment of the energy sector, i.e. from changes in the technical, economic, social or political framework conditions. Such changes pose new requirements for energy research, for example as they shift the role of the various areas of energy research in the implementation of the Energiewende. In EnFo-2030, the objective is to identify these existing and foreseeable changes in the overall environment of the transformation of the energy system and, building upon these observations, to develop recommendations for the future direction and focus of state funded energy research.

Project Parts

The ifo Institute in cooperation with Prof. Löschel and TU München, in particular, takes an economic perspective and considers societal and systemic aspects throughout this derivation and discussion of the need for future state-funded energy research. A focus is correspondingly on the question of economic impacts and of the efficiency and effectiveness of energy policy measures as well as on whether and to what extent socio-economic conditions, as for example the social acceptance of technologies or the system transformation, influence the overall development of the energy system and the role of specific areas of energy research. Further central aspects with respect to the future need for energy research, which are examined by the ifo Institute, are the development of new business models in the course of the Energiewende and the role that regulation in the energy sector plays for the implementation of innovative business models and technologies.

Methods

Literature analysis; background consultations with stakeholders from industry, politics and society as well as external researchers.