Energy Technology RD&D
Tracking trends in spending on research, development and demonstration
The IEA’s Energy Technology RD&D Budget Database allows users to track trends in spending by energy technology in IEA countries back to 1977. Data is collected from central or federal government budgets, as well as the budgets of state-owned companies, for spending on a range of sectors including energy efficiency, renewables, nuclear power, fossil fuels, hydrogen and fuel cells, and more. All figures refer to total public energy RD&D expenditure data, converted from current prices in national currencies to US dollar PPPs in constant 2018 prices, using GDP deflators and 2018 PPPs.
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Overview of public energy RD&D trends in IEA Countries
In 2018, the estimated total public energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) budget for IEA member governments reached to USD 19.6 billion (in purchasing power parity, or PPP, terms)1. After four years of decreases through to 2016, total public energy RD&D budget of IEA member countries increased in 2017 by 2% and again in 2018, reaching a level 26% higher than in 2008 but still 5% lower than in 2012, and much lower than the 2009 peak. The 2018 increase was driven by higher budgets allocated to low-carbon energy technologies.
Total public energy RD&D budget for
Note: Data for 2018 include for the first time the additional spending of the Ministry of Environment (MoE) of Japan (0.4 USD billion), which is not covered for previous years. This has effects on the apparent 2017-2018 growth of 1.5 USD billion for IEA member countries and of 20% for Japan.
In PPP terms, the United States and Japan spent the most on energy RD&D among IEA member countries, followed by France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Korea, Italy and Mexico. For most of these countries, total public energy RD&D expenditure increased in 2018, except for Korea where it fell by 1%. The energy RD&D budget of the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme, is larger than that of all but two IEA member countries: the United States and Japan. If the EU budget were added to IEA European countries’ total, the total would rise 42% to USD 8.9 billion (PPP).
Total budget United States 7148 Japan 3187.576 European Union 1827 France 1526 Germany 1404 United Kingdom 1041 Canada 850 Korea 757 Italy 655 Mexico 409 Other IEA 2657
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Note: * The amounts shown are based on 2018 energy RD&D budgets, with the exceptions of Poland, Finland, Belgium, Spain, Estonia and New Zealand based on 2017 data; Czech Republic based on 2016 data. No recent data were available for Greece, Luxembourg and Portugal. Data for the United States have been estimated by the IEA Secretariat. European Union refers to the European Union budget under Horizon 2020, and not to the sum of national budgets of European Union member countries.
The ratio of overall public energy RD&D budget per unit of GDP varied greatly among IEA member countries, ranging from less than 0.1 USD PPP to at most 1 per thousand in 2017. Norway had the highest level in the IEA, with a ratio of 0.97 USD PPP per thousand, followed by Estonia (0.93). Other leading countries were Finland (0.82), Switzerland (0.61) and Hungary (0.54).
Total budget United States 7147.516 Japan 3187.576 European Union 1827.389 France 1526.081 Germany 1403.672 United Kingdom 1041.176 Canada 850.116 Korea 757.292 Italy 655.216 Mexico 408.829 Switzerland 348.898 Norway 290.151 Netherlands 284.855 Poland 236.315 Finland 214.184 Belgium 208.405 Turkey 186.456 Austria 185.651 Australia 165.284 Sweden 149.255 Spain 121.144 Denmark 109.61 Czech Republic 43.57 Estonia 42.123 Hungary 29.413 Ireland 25.288 Slovak Republic 8.809 New Zealand 7.602
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Note: * The amounts shown are based on 2018 energy RD&D budgets, with the exceptions of Poland, Finland, Belgium, Spain, Estonia and New Zealand based on 2017 data; Czech Republic based on 2016 data. No recent data were available for Greece, Luxembourg and Portugal. Data for the United States have been estimated by the IEA Secretariat.
2017 Norway 0.973 Estonia 0.926 Finland 0.816 Switzerland 0.613 Hungary 0.542 Japan 0.490 France 0.488 Austria 0.377 Korea 0.374 Canada 0.374 Sweden 0.365 Belgium 0.365 United States 0.326 United Kingdom 0.319 Germany 0.309 Denmark 0.291 Italy 0.251 Netherlands 0.204 Poland 0.202 Mexico 0.141 Czech Republic 0.110 Australia 0.110 Turkey 0.089 Ireland 0.067 Spain 0.065 New Zealand 0.038 Slovak Republic 0.024
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Note: * Total RD&D in nominal national currencies divided by GDP in nominal national currencies at market prices and volumes, expressed in thousand units of GDP. Based on 2017 data, except for Czech Republic based on 2016 data. No recent data were available for Greece, Luxembourg and Portugal. Data for the United States have been estimated by the IEA Secretariat.
Public low-carbon energy RD&D trends in IEA Countries
RD&D spending in low-carbon1 energy technologies in IEA member countries saw a significant increase in 2018 to reach USD 18.5 billion (2018 prices and PPP) representing 94% of total RD&D budgets (Figure 7). As total energy RD&D spending, after four years of decreases since 2012, low-carbon energy technologies in IEA member countries increased in 2017 by 3% and again in 2018.
In comparison, spending for non-low-carbon2 energy technologies (coal, gas, oil and other fossil fuel RD&D) remained steady in 2018 at just above $1 billion.
1In the current IEA categorization of RD&D energy technologies, low-carbon energy technologies are defined as: energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage (CCS), renewable energy sources, nuclear, hydrogen and fuel cells, other power and storage, and other cross-cutting technologies and research.
2In the current IEA categorization of RD&D energy technologies, non-low-carbon energy technologies represent coal, gas, oil and other fossil fuel RD&D. However, CCS is included in low-carbon.
Low-carbon Non-low-carbon 1977 15285.2 2229.4 1978 16971.6 2740.8 1979 18776.9 2908.6 1980 18939.8 3765.7 1981 17907.2 3792.4 1982 17165.2 2626.5 1983 16217.1 2438 1984 15913 2402.1 1985 15580.1 2169.7 1986 13789.9 2215.2 1987 11942.1 1928.6 1988 11164.1 2135.2 1989 11308.6 1905.3 1990 10560.7 2581 1991 10832.3 2225.9 1992 10134.5 1549.3 1993 9749.1 1500.8 1994 9909.6 1604.8 1995 10122.4 1272.1 1996 9713.5 1293.5 1997 9467.9 1021.7 1998 9629.8 921.4 1999 9980 850.9 2000 10073.5 768.6 2001 10468.8 967.2 2002 11299.2 1574.8 2003 10969.6 1468.8 2004 11258.9 1353.9 2005 11860.2 1285.3 2006 12303.2 1288 2007 13544.1 1399.9 2008 14163.9 1415.3 2009 18982 4411.2 2010 17262 1279 2011 19281.5 1235.2 2012 19433.6 1208.3 2013 17870.5 1815.7 2014 17825.2 1584 2015 16866.6 1438 2016 16578.9 1246.5 2017 17030.8 1118.2 2018 18517.8 1113.9
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Note: * Data for 2018 include for the first time the additional spending of the Ministry of Environment (MoE) of Japan (0.4 USD billion of low-carbon technologies), which is not covered for previous years. This has effects on the apparent 2017-2018 growth.
Reflecting this broad trend, most IEA member countries increased low-carbon RD&D investments in 2018.
In the United States, low-carbon energy RD&D budgets were estimated to grow by 9% with an additional USD 581 million. The second largest increase was in Canada, where low-carbon energy RD&D budgets grew by 34%, amounting to USD 181 million. Mexico recorded one of the largest growth rates increasing the spending by 88% (94 million USD). Japan’s apparent 2017-18 growth was 20%, but this is largely due to data on additional spending by Japan’s Ministry of Environment (0.4 USD billion in 2018) that was not covered in previous years of this database.
Low-carbon absolute growth (million USD) Low-carbon growth (%) USA 581 9.376 Japan 539 20.486 Canada 181 34.377 Mexico 93 87.613 Netherlands 77 39.783 UK 74 7.823 France 63 4.364 Italy 20 3.935 Denmark 17 18.72 Australia 21 18.53 Korea 2 0.299
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