JRC reveals low-carbon investment

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has undertaken a study that shows a total investment of €3.3bn in European research and development (R&D) in low-carbon energy technologies in 2007.

Technologies identified as a priority in Europe include wind energy, photovoltaics, concentrated solar power (CSP), bio-energy, carbon capture and storage (CCS), smart grids, nuclear fission, hydrogen and fuel cells and nuclear fusion.

The JRC research showed that in 2007, €2.38bn was invested in R&D on non-nuclear energy, of which €1.66bn came from the private sector. Expenditure on nuclear energy technologies came to €940m and was almost equally split between fission and fusion research.

Hydrogen and fuel cells related research showed a significantly higher than average expenditure of €616m. Concentrated solar power had the lowest level of investment at €86m with countries that had high public R&D funds also accounting for the largest corporate R&D investments.

The report indicates that 99 per cent of the total national R&D budgets on priority technologies originate from France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland and Austria.