Making Energy Innovation a Team Sport

MIT Institute Professor and former CIA Director John Deutch last week warned that the U.S. needs to revamp its “innovation system” if we want to make timely progress on global warming and energy security. The former Deputy Secretary of Defense and Undersecretary of Energy offered his views on the challenges to remaking our energy system in a plenary talk at the Optics and Photonics for Advanced Energy Technology meeting at MIT.

Deutsch’s main point is that the researchers and entrepreneurs who are rushing to tackle the energy problem are following the traditional model of technology innovation: identify a problem, come up with an idea to solve it, engineer the solution for specific applications, and bring the solution to market.

This linear, technology-push approach is running up against the hard economic and regulatory realities of the energy market as currently embodied by Congress and exemplified by the Waxman-Markey Bill.

Innovation needs to be more of a team sport, Deutch said. You have to start the science, engineering and business aspects at the same time. “So this traditional distinction we have… between discovery and application is blurred because discovery here depends upon the character of the application,” he said.

On top of the systemic challenges, the Waxman-Markey Bill poses a particular challenge for energy innovation, Deutch said. On one hand you have Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) that dictate specific amounts of wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. And on the other you have cap-and-trade, which attempts to place a price on carbon emissions.

The two methods clash, Deutch said. “You have an inconsistent set of measures that are supposed to guide our energy future. The problem is RPS hides the cost of the generation technologies that are going to replace CO2, and the CO2 cap-and-trade system recognizes the costs,” he said. “It makes an uneconomic basis for technology choices.

Eric Smalley is the editor of Energy Research News. He has written about technology since 1987 and has freelanced for many publications including Discover, Scientific American, Wired News and The Boston Globe on topics ranging from quantum cryptography to global warming.