With the rise of concerns about sustainability and greater consciousness about the impact of fossil fuels, the renewable energy sector has been one of the most prolific with a sustained track record of developing and continuously updating technology roadmaps.
The commitment to roadmapping has not been limited to a narrow collection of countries or just to one of the more popular renewable energy options – it has been deep and widespread.
The purpose of this article is to lay out just how widespread the interest has been to give readers a ‘helicopter view’ of the depth and diversity of road maps that have been developed and the rich resource for innovation and new product development that this represents.
Overview: Renewable Energy Technology Roadmaps
Given the importance of the shift in consciousness towards sustainability almost all innovation roadmaps and foresight projects include a review of renewable energy. The analysis in this article is limited purely to those roadmaps where an aspect of renewable energy is the core focus of the document.
The principal topics covered include:
- solar
- wave
- geothermal
- biomass
- wind
- biofuels
An example, in the form of the 2008 European Hydrogen Roadmap, is available for download.
Download: 2008 European Hydrogen Roadmap.
Click on the image of the front cover of the roadmap to download the full PDF.
As can be readily seen from the three graphs, Hydrogen, Solar and Biofuel technology roadmaps have been the focus of attention. The number of roadmaps produced each year averages just under ten during the last decade. There are almost 20 roadmaps that were produced in 2001 or earlier. The European Union, UK and US have prepared the largest number of roadmaps. For reference, the sample size is a total of 99 roadmaps.
The reader will be aware that this type of review is not just applicable to the renewable energy space.
This is the first example of this type of article – we intend to make this a series in which we will subsequently review other important industry and technology sectors.
Any other industry or technology domain can be reviewed. Individual or multiple roadmaps, whether from the renewables sector or other industries, are available on request. If you would care to indicate which industry sector or technology domain you would like to see reviewed next, I would be very happy to take that into account in setting priorities. The categories that I have used in the right hand side bar are broad and arbitrary, so please don’t feel constrained to using these terms – just ask.
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