The objective of this paper is to investigate how pilot and demonstration plants affect innovation in the empirical context of advanced biofuel technology. Patent counts are used as a proxy for innovation; we employ data for eight EU Member States over the time-period 1980–2011, and negative binomial regression techniques. The focus is on plant investments that have received public co-funding. The results are overall robust to alternative model specifications, and show that the knowledge generated through past investments in pilot and demonstration plants has had positive effects on advanced biofuel patenting activities. This result is particularly valid for so-called experimental plants, i.e., aiming at testing the technical viability of new technology. The empirical analysis does not indicate the presence of any positive interaction between investments in experimental plants and biofuel blending policies, i.e., in the sense that more stringent blending requirements can raise the rate-of-return on additional pilot tests. Moreover, advanced biofuel innovation is also affected through knowledge spillovers across the selected EU Member States. The paper ends by outlining avenues for future research on the role of pilot and demonstration plants in technology development.

The objective of this paper is to examine the innovation impacts of renewable energy support policies, and their interaction in the empirical context of solar photovoltaics (PV) technology. This is achieved using data on patent applications for 13 countries over the period 1978–2008, and unconditional negative binomial estimators. The analysis addresses one technology-push instrument, public R&D support, and two demand-pull instruments, feed-in tariffs (FIT), and renewable energy certificate (REC) schemes. The results indicate that: (a) both FIT and REC schemes induce solar PV patenting activity, but the impact of the former policy appears to be more profound; (b) public R&D support has overall been more influential than FIT and REC schemes in encouraging solar PV innovation; (c) policy interaction exists in that the impact of public R&D support on innovation is greater at the margin if it is accompanied by the use of FIT schemes for solar PV. A corresponding interaction effect is harder to detect for public R&D support and REC schemes, possibly due to the stronger technology selection pressure under the latter policy. The results following several robustness tests support the existence of a positive interaction effect between public R&D and FIT schemes.

Using panel data on 13 OECD countries between 1979 and 2008 this paper examines the affect climate and energy policies have had on the rate of biotechnology innovations. The explanatory variables include a vector of important determinants of patenting activity for biotechnologies (e.g. specific and general research and development expenditures, energy consumption, energy prices and total number of registered patents). Fixed effects are employed to capture unobservable country-specific heterogeneity using a negative binomial model. The empirical results indicate that policies are important for stimulating innovations in biotechnologies. The development of feed-in-tariffs (FITs) and the implementation of tradable green certificates have had a positive and statistically significant impact on patent activity. The economic impact of green certificates is found to be larger than that of FITs. In addition, R&D activities have also had a positive and statistically significant effect on innovation.

Pilot and demonstration plants (PDPs) play important roles in technological development. They represent bridges between basic knowledge generation and technological breakthroughs on the one hand, and industrial application and commercial adoption on the other. The objectives of this article are to synthesise and categorise existing research on PDPs, as well as to suggest an agenda for future research. We review the PDP phenomena in three literature streams: engineering and natural science research, technology and innovation management, and innovation systems. The analysis highlights clear differences in e.g. conceptions of system boundaries and what the literature streams seeks to accomplish, but also similarities such as the key ideas of using PDPs for technology scale-up and uncertainty reduction.

The overall purpose of this thesis is to analyze the role of public policies for technological development (i.e., innovation) in the renewable energy sector. The thesis consists of an introductory part and three self-contained papers.

Paper I investigates the innovation effects of renewable energy support policies and their interaction in the empirical context of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. This is achieved by using data on solar PV patent counts and policies targeting solar PV development across 13 countries over the time period 1978-2008. These policies include public R&D support to solar PV as well as two different types of production support schemes: feed-in tariffs (FIT) and renewable energy certificates (REC). The data are applied to a negative binomial model and the results indicate that: (a) both FIT and REC schemes stimulate solar PV patenting activity although the impact of the former is of a larger magnitude; (b) public R&D has been more influential than the production support schemes in inducing solar PV innovation; and (c) policy interaction exists in that the innovation effect of public R&D support is greater at the margin if it is accompanied by the use of FIT schemes for solar PV.

Paper II analyzes the role of pilot and demonstration plants (PDPs) in technological development. As surprisingly little explicit attention has been devoted to this issue in prior research, the existing literature is synthesized and categorized, and an agenda is proposed for future work. Scholarly work on PDPs can be found across several research fields and the discussion in the paper is organized around three research streams: engineering and natural science research, technology and innovation management, and innovation systems. Based on searches in key bibliographic databases more than 200 publications were identified and reviewed. According to the literature synthesis, the plants bridge basic knowledge generation and technological breakthroughs on the one hand (promoted by public R&D support), and exploitation of new technology for commercial use on the other (promoted by production support schemes). Still, more research on the subject is needed. For instance, the role of PDPs for inducing innovation needs to be assessed in a rigorous empirical setting as this issue has only been researched in conceptual studies or retrospective case studies based entirely on qualitative or descriptive approaches.

Paper III provides an econometric analysis of the innovation impacts of publicly funded PDP activities in the case of advanced biofuel technology. This is achieved by using data on biofuel patent counts and PDPs across eight European countries over the time period 1980-2011. It is acknowledged that PDPs have two main objectives: testing and optimization of technology (experimental PDPs), and diffusion and commercialization of technology (exemplary PDPs). The data are applied to a negative binomial model and indicate that: (a) PDP activities are overall positively correlated with biofuel patents; (b) experimental PDPs are more innovation-promoting than exemplary PDPs; and (c) experimental PDP activities encourage innovation also indirectly through knowledge spillovers.

The overall conclusion is that environmental policy encourages renewable energy innovation. Public R&D support as well as production support schemes are important for inducing innovation, and there are interactions between these policy types which must be acknowledged when designing public support. As public R&D support is more innovation-promoting when accompanied by the use of certain production support schemes, these policies should be employed simultaneously. Moreover, publicly funded PDP activities foster innovation and thus, their role must also be acknowledged when designing public policy.

Pilot and demonstration plants (PDPs) may be important for fostering technological innovation. They constitute a bridge between basic knowledge generation and technological breakthroughs on the one hand, and industrial application and commercial adoption of new technology on the other. The aim of this paper is to examine the innovation impacts of publicly funded PDP activities in the empirical context of production technology for advanced biofuels. The study is conducted by employing patent data for eight European countries over the time period 1980-2011, and it is acknowledged that PDPs have two main objectives: testing and optimization of technology (experimental PDPs), and diffusion and commercialization of technology (exemplary PDPs). The results are overall robust to alternative model specifications, and indicate that: (a) PDP activities are overall positively correlated with biofuel patenting activity; (b) both experimental and exemplary PDPs encourage biofuel innovation although the impact of the former is more profound; and (c) development activities in experimental PDPs encourage innovation also indirectly through knowledge spillovers across countries.

The objective of this paper is to examine the innovation impacts of different renewable energy support policies and their interaction in the empirical context of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. This is achieved using data on patent applications for 13 countries over the time period 1978-2008. Three policies are included in the analysis: public R&D support to solar PV, fixed feed-in tariffs (FIT), and renewable energy certificate (REC) schemes. The results are overall robust to alternative model specifications, and indicate that: (a) both FIT schemes and REC schemes induce more solar PV patenting activity even though the impact of the former policy appears to be more profound; (b) (lagged) public R&D support has an important impact on solar PV innovation; and (c) policy interaction exists in that the impact of public R&D support on innovation is greater at the margin if it is accompanied by the use of FIT schemes for solar PV. A corresponding interaction effect does not emerge in the case of public R&D and the use of REC schemes, possibly due to the relatively strong technology selection pressure under the latter policy.

Presenterade forskning kring hur miljötekniska innovationer kan främjas av olika styrmedel.

Pilot and demonstration plants (PDPs) play important roles in the process of technological development because they represent the bridge between basic knowledge generation and technological breakthroughs on the one hand, and industrial application and commercial adoption on the other. The objectives of this paper are to synthesize and categorize the existing research on PDPs, as well as to suggest an agenda for future research efforts. We review the PDP phenomena in three literature streams: engineering and natural science research, technology- and innovation management, and innovation systems. The analysis highlights clear differences in e.g. conceptions of system boundaries and in what the literature streams seeks to accomplish, but also similarities such as the key ideas of using PDPs for technology scale-up and uncertainty reduction. These results are discussed and a future research agenda is provided.

Motivering:Uppsatsen använder patentdata för flera länder över en längre tidsperiod för att med hjälp av ekonometriska metoder studera hur energipolitiken påverkat innovationsbenägenheten i solenergiteknologi. Bäckström har gjort ett imponerande jobb med att samla in data och diskutera dess reliabilitet samt validitet. Han utgår från teorin om endogen (inducerad) teknisk utveckling och använder avancerade metoder (s.k. count data modelling) för att analysera effekterna av t.ex. stödformer och FoU (och deras interaktion) på patentbenägenheten. Uppsatsen genererar flera viktiga resultat och är så pass bra att den (i en förkortad version) skulle kunna publiceras i en erkänd vetenskaplig tidskrift. Kristoffer Bäckström är en värdig mottagare av NOAKs ekonomipris.