The role of corporate investment in start-ups for climate-tech innovation

Journal Article · Fri Mar 17 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Joule

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2023.02.017· OSTI ID:1971491

Surana, Kavita ^[1]; Edwards, Morgan R. ^[2]; Kennedy, Kathleen M. ^[3]; Borrero, Maria A. ^[3]; Clarke, Leon ^[4]; Fedorchak, Rachel ^[2]; Hultman, Nathan E. ^[3]; McJeon, Haewon ^[5]; Thomas, Zachary H. ^[2]; Williams, Ellen D. ^[3]

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1. University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States); Complexity Science Hub Vienna, Vienna (Austria)
2. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
3. University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
4. University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States); Bezos Earth Fund, Washington DC (United States)
5. University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Joint Global Change Research Institute

Enabling and accelerating the full potential of energy innovation is a critical component of the global policy response to climate change. Incentivizing start-ups advancing climate-tech (i.e., products and services related to clean energy and climate change), has become central to innovation policy because start-ups are nimble (compared to incumbents), can quickly focus on bringing new technologies to market, and simultaneously create new jobs and catalyze local industries. Public policies to support climate-tech start-ups and efforts such as Mission Innovation tend to focus on increasing government spending (e.g., grants for research and development) or on creating demand pull for new technologies (e.g., feed-in-tariffs). But to go from research and development to widespread adoption of new products and services, start-ups need to grow and scale, and this requires support from private investors. Yet, research on how different investors can shape the direction of climate innovation—and how public policy can incentivize private investment in climate-tech start-ups to support the public good—is surprisingly sparse.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Roy F. Weston Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship; USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1971491
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-169512
• Journal Information: Joule, Journal Name: Joule Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 7; ISSN 2542-4351
• Publisher: Elsevier - Cell Press
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY