sectoral economic costs and benefits of ghg mitigation - IPCC

Renewable Energy
Figure 6 Energy PERD of the G7 countries by main category (10 6 $90)
14 000
12 000
10 000
8 000
OTHER
NUCLEAR
POWER GEN
FOSSIL
RENEWABLE
CONSERV
6 000
4 000
2 000
0
1974197519761977197819791980198119821983198419851986198719881989199019911992199319941995
Source: IEA Energy R&D statistics
Figure 7 Energy PERD of the G7 countries, renewable technologies (10 6 $90)
1 200
1 000
800
SOL THERM
SOL PV
WIND
BIOMASS
600
400
200
0
1974197519761977197819791980198119821983198419851986198719881989199019911992199319941995
Source: IEA Energy R&D statistics
Cumulative PERD as a proxy for the stock of knowledge
In order to explain technology dynamics and improvements, it is possible to refer to cumulative
R&D spending, considered as a proxy variable for the accumulated stock of scientific and
technological knowledge gained from basic research. Two methodological difficulties arise when
assessing this variable: the first one relates to the initial value of cumulative research and the
second one to the necessity of taking into account a “scrapping rate” for technological
knowledge. As concerns initial cumulative research, it has been assumed in this analysis that
R&D expenses have increased linearly between a hypothetical starting year (i.e. 1960 for large
scale nuclear programs and 1970 for other technologies) and 1974, the first date with real data in
IEA statistics. Because of lack of empirical evidence concerning energy technologies and for the
simplicity of the analysis, the “scrapping rate” has been taken to zero.
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