CLÉMENT BONNET

The nexus between climate negotiations and low-carbon innovation: a geopolitics of renewable energy patents

Clément Bonnet, Samuel Carcanague, Emmanuel Hache, Gondia Sokhna Seck, Marine Simoën

Abstract

Intellectual property is a central issue in the climate negotiations. On the one hand, it shapes and encourages innovation in low-carbon technologies. On the other hand, it reduces access to these technologies by giving patent holders market power. We analyze the interactions between climate negotiations and the acquisition of patents on renewable energy technologies. First, we recall the geopolitical nature of intellectual property and explain how it is modified by the particularities of low-carbon innovation. The second part of this article is devoted to an inventory of the production of inventions in renewable energy technologies (RETs). In particular, we focus on the relative technological advantages of countries and the value of patented inventions. Major changes are observed in the geographical distribution of low-carbon innovation during the 2000s and they foreshadow a reorganization of the geopolitical balances of innovation in renewable energies.

Mot(s) clé(s)

Patent data, energy transition, renewable energy technology, innovation, international relations

Measuring Knowledge with Patent Data: an Application to Low Carbon Energy Technologies

Clément Bonnet

Abstract

We estimate a latent factor model (LFM) to compute an index that measures the quality of an extensive data set of inventions related to Low Carbon Energy Technologies (LCETs) and patented by seven countries during 1980-2010. We use the quality index to compute the stock of knowledge accumulated in the fifteen analyzed LCETs. We investigate the composition of the stock of knowledge and find that important substitutions between technologies have taken place: technologies such as solar thermal and nuclear have been progressively replaced by wind power, solar photovoltaic and to a less extent by few other technologies. This substitution effect can be decomposed into quantity (the number of inventions) and quality (the quality of inventions). Investigating the latter, the quality of nuclear-related inventions has decreased whereas it has increased for solar photovoltaic (PV), wind power and energy storage inventions. Few newer technologies, i.e. hydrogen and sea energy, also show signs of an increase of their average quality of inventions over the last years of the data set. We go further and investigate the inventions distribution in terms of quality and conclude that the potential for signifcant inventions related to nuclear technology has decreased over time whereas higher levels of quality have been reached in newer technological areas. A cross-country comparison is conducted to assess the innovation performance of the seven countries covered by our study. We conclude that technology policies are less efficient when demand-pull and supply-push approaches are not coupled.

Mot(s) clé(s)

patent data; latent factor model; energy technologies; carbon.

Revisiting the optimal patent policy tradeoff for environmental technologies

Clément Bonnet

Abstract

The invention and the diffusion of environmental process of production and consumption goods are impeded by two market failures: the first on environment and the second on knowledge. The question arises whether the instruments aiming at correcting these market failures should be jointly designed or not. We investigate this question for a major instrument of support to innovation: the patent system. We demonstrate that a patent system and a discriminating environmental taxation that are jointly defined provide for a greater efficiency. We conclude that the two externalities interact with each other through the patent system.

Mot(s) clé(s)

environmental innovation, double externality, patent policy.

Market pull instruments and the development of wind power in Europe: a counterfactual analysis

Marc Baudry, Clément Bonnet

Abstract

Renewable energy technologies are called to play a crucial role in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Since most of these technologies are immature, public policies provide for two types of support: technology push and market pull. The latter aims at creating demand for new technologies and at stimulating their diffusion. Nevertheless, due to the complex self-sustained dynamics of diffusion it is hard to determine whether newly installed capacities are imputable to the impulse effect of instruments at the beginning of the diffusion process or to the current support. The paper addresses this problem. A micro-founded model of technology diffusion is built to estimate the impact of the yearly average Return-on-Investment (RoI) on the yearly count of commissioned wind farms in six European countries over the last decade. A counter-factual analysis is carried out to assess the impact of policy instruments on the RoI and, indirectly, on diffusion.

Mot(s) clé(s)

Renewable energy; technology diffusion; wind power; market pull; technology push.