6. ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION

Business development and commercialisation

This area includes support for the demonstration, business development, commercialisation and dissemination of new solutions that contribute to a sustainable energy system.

Support is increasingly focused on the needs and readiness levels of companies. More weight is given to the probability of successful market penetration as a selection criterion for a company’s participation in international programmes. To qualify, a company’s solution should also be of use (or coming into use) in the Swedish energy system, or have the potential to contribute to growth in Sweden along with positive effects on the global energy system.

Sustainable society

This area includes planning and the integration of the different infrastructures of society with the focus on energy systems solutions for sustainable cities and communities.

International partnerships

The area includes activities to support Swedish energy R&I through international collaboration as well as to promote the competitiveness of Swedish energy R&I on international markets.

Funding

In 2017, the Swedish government spent SEK 1.7 billion (around US dollars 190 million) on energy-related research, development and demonstration (RD&D) (IEA, 2018). As a share of the gross domestic product (GDP), Sweden spends above the median among International Energy Agency (IEA) member countries, but much less than the share of the top spenders (Figure 6.1).

Figure 6.1 Government energy RD&D spending per GDP in IEA countries, 2017

Energy RD&D spending per thousand units of GDP

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

The Swedish government spending on energy RD&D per unit of GDP is the tenth highest in the IEA, but significantly lower than that of the leading countries.

Note: Data are not available for Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Korea, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain.

Source: IEA (2018), IEA Energy Technology RD&D 2018 (database), www.iea.org/statistics/.

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6. ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION

ERIP at the SEA provides by far most of the public funding for ETRDI. The budget for 2017 was SEK 1.48 billion, which will gradually increase to SEK 1.6 billion by 2020 (Figure 6.2). The funding of the SEA ERIP is close to the level of private sector cofunding for the programme.

Figure 6.2 Public RD&I funding in Sweden

Note: RDD&I = research, development, demonstration and innovation.

Source: IEA, based on information from the Swedish Ministry of the Environment and Energy.

In 2017, energy efficiency received 45% of the total funds, renewable energy 16% and cross-cutting technologies 12% (Figure 6.3). As the figure shows, however, funding by areas of energy RD&D varies from year to year.

Figure 6.3 Government energy RD&D spending by category, 2008-17

Research on energy efficiency, renewables and cross-cutting technologies receive the highest shares of public RD&D spending.

* Other includes fossil fuels, hydrogen and fuel cells, other power and storage technologies, and unallocated money. Sources: IEA (2018a), IEA Energy Technology RD&D 2018 (database), www.iea.org/statistics/.

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2 The strategic prioritisation process was evaluated by the consultancy Kontigo and the Agency for Growth Analysis.

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6. ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION

In addition, the SEA conducts an annual follow-up survey to highlight a selection of important issues. In specific situations, midterm evaluations of the programmes may be required.

International collaboration

Swedish energy research is closely tied to the international energy research community. The country actively leads or participates in multilateral co-operation through Mission Innovation (MI), the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), the European Union (EU) European Research Area Network, the EU Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan, Horizon 2020 and the regional Nordic Energy Research Programme. Sweden also has bilateral collaboration projects and programmes, for example with India and Indonesia. In addition, Sweden is a Contracting Party to 22 IEA Technology Collaboration Programmes (TCPs), particularly those related to energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The aims of MI are to strengthen and accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation. Each participating country will seek to double its governmental and/or statedirected clean energy research and development (R&D) investment over five years. New investments are to be focused on transformational clean energy technology innovations that can be scalable to varying economic and energy market conditions. In practice, Sweden chose to double the funding for energy R&I projects that focus on long-term, transformative R&D and are formulated bottom-up by researchers and/or industry. The doubling is based on the average of the budget allocated for such operations during the period 2013-15. Sweden was a founding participant in this initiative when it was launched in November 2015, which today includes 23 countries and the European Union.

Sweden participates in several initiatives and campaigns of CEM. It also co-hosted the ninth CEM and the third MI in May 2018, together with the Denmark, Norway, Finland, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the European Commission.

Swedish research institutions and companies participate in the EU’s Horizon 2020 – the largest EU R&I programme with a budget of close to EUR 80 billion for 2014-20. One of Horizon 2020’s priority thematic areas is energy, with a focus on energy efficiency, lowcarbon energy and smart cities and communities.

Sweden takes part in the EU SET Plan. As part of the SET Plan, Swedish research institutes and companies can participate in the European Energy Research Alliance, the European Technology and Innovation Platforms and the SET Plan Information System.

Sweden is a member of Nordic Energy Research, an institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers to promote regional co-operation in energy RD&D and to help address the following challenges:

infrastructure that enables system solutions

transportation fuels and the utilisation of biomass

energy efficiency improvements in demand sectors

decarbonisation of energy-intensive industry.

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