A World of Competition and Cooperation
Energy technology innovation is not a U.S. phenomenon; it is a global phenomenon. All over the world, research institutions, companies, and governments alike are intensifying their investments in energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment (ERD3).
In 1999, a report by the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) called for more than doubling U.S. federal spending on international ERD3 cooperation and for establishing new institutions to develop a strategy and to oversee the effort (PCAST, 1999). It recommended a wide range of international ERD3 cooperation activities over a large number of different energy technologies.
The international energy landscape has been transformed since then, in particular by the rise of emerging economies such as China and India both as energy markets and as energy innovators. Overall, these changes have only made the case for such cooperation stronger. Indeed, the process of innovation has globalized, with ideas, resources, and manufacturing coming from different countries throughout the value chain (Gallagher, Gruebler, Kuhl, Nemet, & Wilson, 2012); there are now few high-tech products that do not include contributions from multiple countries. Countries and firms that attempt to go it alone in developing new energy technologies and bringing them to market are likely to be left behind by those who are sharing in the global flow of ideas and resources.