3.2. Rationale and Union added value

New technologies and solutions must compete on cost and reliability against energy systems with well-established incumbents and technologies. Research and innovation are critical to make these new, cleaner, low-carbon, more efficient energy sources commercially attractive on the scale needed. Neither industry alone, nor Member States individually, are able to bear the costs and risks, for which the main drivers (transition to a low-carbon economy, providing affordable and secure energy) are outside the market. Speeding up this development will require a strategic approach at Union level, spanning energy supply, demand and use in buildings, services, domestic use, transport and industrial value chains. This will entail aligning resources across the Union, including Cohesion Policy Funds, in particular through the national and regional strategies for smart specialisation, emission trading schemes (ETS), public procurement and other financing mechanisms. It will also require regulatory and deployment policies for renewables and energy efficiency, tailored technical assistance and capacity-building to remove non-technological barriers. The Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) offers such a strategic approach. It provides a long-term agenda to address the key innovation bottlenecks that energy technologies are facing at the frontier research and R&D/proof-of-concept stages and at the demonstration stage when companies seek capital to finance large, first-of-a-kind projects and to open the market deployment process. Newly emerging technologies with disruptive potential will not be neglected. The resources required to implement the SET Plan in full have been estimated at EUR 8 billion per year over the next 10 years COM(2009)0519. . This is well beyond the capacity of individual Member States or research and industrial stakeholders alone. Investments in research and innovation at Union level are needed, combined with mobilisation of efforts across Europe in the form of joint implementation and risk and capacity sharing. Union funding of energy research and innovation shall therefore complement Member States' activities by focusing on cutting-edge technologies and activities with clear Union added value, in particular those with high potential to leverage national resources and create jobs in Europe. Action at Union level shall also support high-risk, high-cost, long-term programmes beyond the reach of individual Member States, pool efforts to reduce investment risks in large-scale activities such as industrial demonstration, and develop Europe-wide, interoperable energy solutions. Implementation of the SET Plan as the research and innovation pillar of European energy policy will reinforce the Union's security of supply and the transition to a low-carbon economy, help to link research and innovation programmes with trans-European and regional investments in energy infrastructure and increase the willingness of investors to release capital for projects with long lead-times and significant technology and market risks. It will create opportunities for innovation for small and large companies and help them become or remain competitive at world level, where opportunities for energy technologies are large and increasing. On the international scene, the action taken at Union level provides a critical mass to attract interest from other technology leaders and to foster international partnerships to achieve the Union's objectives. It will make it easier for international partners to interact with the Union to build common action where there is mutual benefit and interest. The activities under this societal challenge will therefore form the technological backbone of European energy and climate policy. They will also contribute to achieving the flagship initiative 'Innovation Union' in the field of energy and the policy goals outlined in the flagship initiatives 'Resource-efficient Europe', 'An Industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era' and 'Digital agenda for Europe'. Research and innovation activities on nuclear fission and fusion energy are carried out in the Euratom programme established by Regulation (Euratom) No 1314/2013 Where appropriate, possible synergies between this societal challenge and the Euratom programme should be envisaged.

← anx_I__cpt_22__cpt_3__cpt_1__text_4 · All articles · anx_I__cpt_22__cpt_3__cpt_2__text_1 →

Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-03 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.