U.S. Policy for Clean Energy Innovation

March 25, 2021

Executive Summary

As U.S. federal agencies consider adopting a more comprehensive approach to supporting innovation in clean technologies, they should take note of what has worked well in the recent past. Solar provides a successful example. Policies and investments should focus on technology creation, knowledge flows, and market support.

Key Takeaways

Solar became cheap through a sequence of policies deployed by five countries.
Design of industrial policy should focus on robust support for technology creation, knowledge flows, and building markets.Other small-scale technologies with millions of units can use the same drivers.
U.S. energy policy can benefit by applying nine innovation accelerators emerging from the solar case.
Government policy should support the creation of new technology, facilitate knowledge flows, and build markets, all in support of private sector efforts to develop technologies, find markets for them, and make them affordable.

Read the full paper here.

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