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Energy Systems and Technologies for the Coming Century ...

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Penetration of new energy technologies: Insightsfrom techno-socio-economic factorsPeter D. LundAalto UniversitySchool of ScienceP.O. Box 14100, FI-00076 Aalto (Espoo), Finl<strong>and</strong>E-mail: peter.lund@tkk.fiAbstractMany studies underline <strong>the</strong> importance of new renewables such as wind <strong>and</strong> solar <strong>for</strong>CO 2 emission mitigation <strong>and</strong> ensuring access to energy, in particular in <strong>the</strong> power sectorwhere dem<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> emissions grow fast. New renewables provide presently < 3% of allelectricity, but <strong>the</strong>y grow in two digits per annum explained mostly by dem<strong>and</strong>stimulating public support. Underst<strong>and</strong>ing factors that will affect future adoption of newtechnologies is very relevant as simple extrapolations from present state would beambiguous. These factors are investigated here in a techno-socio-economic frameworkincluding aggregated technology diffusion, private sector investments <strong>and</strong> integrationwith energy systems.High annual growth rates are not exceptional <strong>for</strong> emerging energy technologies. Basedon empirical observations supported by technology diffusion <strong>the</strong>ory, a growth exceeding20%yr could be normal when <strong>the</strong> share of all energy is under 1% but declines to 40% (3%), respectively. If going <strong>for</strong> so-called fast-track strategies, RES-Ecould in <strong>the</strong>ory grow even close to 100% of all electricity, but would require strongdem<strong>and</strong> side efficiency measures <strong>and</strong> existing traditional capacity replacementsimultaneously.1 IntroductionNew energy technologies are perceived to play an increasingly important role in CO 2emission mitigation <strong>and</strong> in ensuring access to energy. Some new technologies such aswind power <strong>and</strong> solar photovoltaics have demonstrated two-digit growth numbers <strong>for</strong> alonger period of time, which may be explained by a combined effect of increasingsubsidy volumes <strong>and</strong> technology scale <strong>and</strong> learning effects. For example last year (2010),<strong>the</strong> PV market almost doubled bringing <strong>the</strong> production capacity close to 30,000 MW p<strong>and</strong> in <strong>the</strong> main market Germany solar electricity reaches a 2% share of all electricity.Albeit such skyrocketing market growths, <strong>the</strong>se new technologies still are embryonic inRisø International <strong>Energy</strong> Conference 2011 Proceedings Page 7

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