9.4.2 Programmes and Policies for Technology Transfer
In this section we will follow the steps in the transfer process, using experiences
reported in the literature, as well as case studies (see Table 9.3).
The steps
we follow are assessment, agreement, implementation, evaluation and adaptation,
and repetition. Various programmes try to lower the barriers simultaneously
in some steps. A wide array of policies to increase the implementation rate
of new technologies has been used and tested in the industrial sector in industrialised
countries (Worrell et al., 1997), with varying success rates. We will not discuss
general programmes and policies (e.g. taxation, subsidies, integrated resource
planning, regulation and guidelines, voluntary programmes and information programmes;
see Chapter 4), but rather concentrate on specific examples
in the industrial sector, with an emphasis on developing countries' experiences.
With respect to technology diffusion policies there is no single instrument
to reduce barriers; instead, an integrated policy accounting for the characteristics
of technologies, stakeholders and countries addressed is needed. Technology
diffusion is also influenced by many parameters, including capital costs, resources,
productivity and resource efficiency.
Assessment
Selection of technology is a crucial step in any technology transfer. Information
programmes are designed to assist energy consumers in understanding and employing
technologies and practices to use energy more efficiently. These programmes
aim to increase consumers' awareness, acceptance, and use of particular technologies
or utility energy conservation programmes. Examples of information programmes
include educational brochures, hotlines, videos, audits, and design?assistance,
energy use feedback and labelling programmes. Information needs are strongly
determined by the situation of the actor. Therefore, successful programmes should
be tailored to meet these needs. Surveys in Germany (Gruber and Brand, 1991)
and the Netherlands (Velthuijsen, 1995) showed that trade literature, personal
information from equipment manufacturers and exchange between colleagues are
important information sources. In the United Kingdom, the "Best Practice"
programme aims to improve information on energy efficient technologies, by demonstration
projects, demonstrating technologies in various industrial environments and
conditions, information dissemination and benchmarking (see Section
5.6 in Chapter 5 on information dissemination through
intermediaries). The programme has been effective in achieving cost-effective
energy savings, and is now replicated in various countries (Collingwood and
Goult, 1998). In developing countries and CEITs technology information is more
difficult to obtain. The case studies in India (TERI,1997; Van Berkel,1998a),
see Table 9.3, show various efforts to organise technology
users and to collect and distribute data. These efforts seem to be successful,
and have even lead to the establishment of visions on technology development
(TERI, 1997). In China, visions on technology needs have also been developed.
Box 9.1. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR ENERGY
AUDITING |
Information and methods to identify and assess opportunities for greenhouse
gas emission abatement and energy efficiency are essential steps in the
successful implementation of these practices and technologies. Energy
audits for industries have been used as a tool to bridge this information
gap. In India, energy audits for industry had a bad history, as historically
these were often subsidised and provided at almost no cost. Often the
quality of the audits was very low. Consequently, recommendations were
seldom implemented by the recipient. The cooperation between Tata Energy
Research Institute (TERI, New Delhi), India, and the German organisation
for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) aims to strengthen the capabilities of
the TERI Bangalore Centre, to provide energy audits for industry and to
strengthen the capabilities to offer high quality advise to industry.
The Indo-German project provided various forms of training, established
an energy information centre, provided improved measuring instruments
for energy audits, helped to re-organise the institution by building specialized
teams for the various industrial sectors, and helped to establish South-South
cooperation. The energy audit centre in Bangalore has established itself,
now has nine years of experience in providing energy audits to industry
in India, and has expanded from having eight to more than 25 energy experts.
This has provided the critical mass for the success of the project. It
is planned to replicate this process in other parts of India and other
countries. Currently the Jordan-German Rational Use of Energy Project
is an attempt to replicate the positive experiences from India, by twinning
the Jordan RSS Institute with TERI (Menke, 1998).
|
Energy audit programmes are a more targeted type of information transaction
than simple advertising. Industrial customers that received audits reduced their
electricity use by an average of 2 to 8%, with the higher savings rates achieved
when utilities followed up their initial recommendations with strong marketing,
repeated follow?up visits, and financial incentives to implement the recommended
measures (Nadel, 1990; Nadel, 1991; Oshima, 1998). Energy audit programmes exist
in numerous developing countries, and an evaluation of programmes in 11 different
countries found that on average 56% of the recommended measures were implemented
by audit recipients (Nadel et al., 1991). The Indo-German energy audit project
(see Box 9.1) in Indian industries (Menke, 1998) confirms that 50-60% of the
recommendations were implemented, resulting in energy savings of 5-15%. Moreover,
energy auditing proved to be a viable self-sustaining business opportunity,
as the Indian partner was well equipped and motivated.
Agreement and Implementation
Actual implementation of technologies and practices depends on the motivation
of management and personnel, external driving forces, e.g. legislation and standard
setting, economics (i.e. profitability), availability of financial and human
resources, and other external driving forces (e.g. voluntary agreements). Environmental
legislation can be a driving force in the adoption of new technologies, as evidenced
by the case studies for India (TERI, 1997) and the process for uptake of environmental
technologies in the U.S. (Clark, 1997). Energy prices often do not reflect the
full costs of energy production. Higher energy prices can increase the implementation
rate of efficient practices, as evidenced by the Russian case study (Avdiushin
et al., 1997). Market deregulation can lead to higher energy prices in developing
countries and CEITs (Worrell et al., 1997), although efficiency gains may lead
to lower prices for some consumers. Small energy or carbon taxes have been implemented
for small energy users (incl. industry) in Denmark and the Netherlands, but
it is too early to evaluate the effect on GHG emissions. Energy intensive industries
operating in export-oriented markets are often exempted from such taxation schemes.
The Czech case study shows a scheme, somewhat similar to a "feebate",
where funds from pollution fines are used to finance pollution prevention projects
(Marousek et al., 1998).
Direct subsidies and tax credits or other favourable tax treatments (to raise
end-use energy efficiency) have been a traditional approach for promoting activities
that are thought to be socially desirable. Incentive programmes need to be carefully
justified to assure that social benefits exceed cost. Direct subsidies might
also suffer from the "free rider" problem, where subsidies are used
for investments that would be made anyway. Estimates of the share of "free
riders" in Europe range from 50 to 80% (Farla and Blok, 1995), although
evaluation is often difficult. An example of a financial incentive programme
that has had a very large impact on energy efficiency is the energy conservation
loan programme that China instituted in 1980.
This loan programme is the largest energy efficiency investment programme ever
undertaken by any developing country, and currently commits 7% to 8% of total
energy investment to efficiency, primarily in heavy industry. The programme
not only funded projects that on average had a cost of conserved energy well
below the cost of new supply, it also stimulated widespread adoption of efficient
technologies beyond the relatively small pool of project fund recipients (Levine
and Liu, 1990; Liu et al., 1994). The programme contributed to the remarkable
decline in the energy intensity of China's economy. Since 1980 energy consumption
has grown at an average rate of 4.8% per year (compared to 7.5% in the 1970s)
while GDP has grown twice as fast (9.5% per year), mainly due to falling industrial
sector energy intensity. Of the apparent intensity drop in industry in the 1980s,
about 10% can be attributed directly to the efficiency investment programme
(Sinton and Levine, 1994), and a larger amount from unsubsidised efficiency
investments, efficiency improvements incidental to other investments, and housekeeping
measures. Economic reforms in many countries opened China's economy, which has
favoured growth of light industries over heavy industries. The industrial structure
has thus changed remarkably, in favour of less energy intensive sectors (World
Bank, 1997b).
New approaches to industrial energy efficiency improvement in industrialised
countries include voluntary agreements (VA). A VA generally is a contract between
the government (or another regulating agency) and a private company, association
of companies, or other institution (VA and other forms of public-private partnerships
are also discussed in Section 5.5 of Chapter
5). The content of the agreement may vary. The private partners may promise
to attain a certain degree of energy efficiency improvement, emission reduction
target, or at least try to do so. The government partner may promise to financially
support this endeavour, or promise to refrain from other regulating activities.
Various countries have adopted VAs directed at energy efficiency improvement
(IEA, 1997). No thorough evaluations of VA schemes have been published yet.
Experiences with early environmental VAs varied strongly - from successful actions
to very limited impacts (Worrell et al., 1997). In some cases the result of
a voluntary agreement may come close to those of regulation. Voluntary agreements
can have some apparent advantages above regulation, in that they may be easier
and faster to implement, and may lead to more cost-effective solutions. Some
NICs, e.g. Korea, also consider the use of VAs (Kim, 1998), while the Global
Semiconductor Partnership is an example of an international voluntary agreement
by TNCs to reduce PFC emissions, to avoid regulation (Andersen, 1998a).
Evaluation and Adaptation
Every industrial facility is unique in the process equipment used, lay-out,
resources used, and organisation. Translation from a generic technology level
into practical solutions within a country, sector or individual plant is needed.
In UNIDO's National Cleaner Production Programme, it was found that investors
only accepted the results of a technology demonstration if these are generated
in a situation similar to theirs (Van Berkel, 1998b). Among other activities,
the "Best Practice" programme in the UK (and replicated in China (Dadi
et al., 1997), Brazil, Australia and New Zealand) demonstrates a technology
in different industrial applications. Various countries have subsidy programmes
under which new applications of technologies are eligible. Unless the capacity
to adapt technology to the specific circumstances is developed, either in industry
or technical assistance providers, investments in clean and energy efficient
technology will not be successful.
Repetition
Research and development can have various goals, depending on the barriers to
be tackled to implement a technology. Blok et al. (1995) differentiate between
technical development of a technology, improving the technology to reduce costs,
and exploration and alleviation of barriers to the implementation of a technology.
The challenge of climate change is to achieve substantial GHG emission reductions
over time, which can only be reached by building (technological) capacity through
sustained RD&D efforts. Large potential efficiency improvements do exist
in the long term (Blok et al., 1995). A recent US study (DOE, 1995) quotes many
successes of energy RD&D. There is consensus among economists that R&D
has a payback that is higher than many other investments, and the success of
R&D has been shown in fields like civilian aerospace, agriculture and electronics
(Nelson, 1982). Still the private sector has a propensity to under invest in
RD&D, because it cannot appropriate the full benefits of RD&D investments,
due to "free riders" (Cohen and Noll, 1994). Companies will also under
invest in RD&D that reduces costs not reflected in market prices (Williams
and Goldemberg, 1995), such as air pollution damages and climate change. The
example of the Waste Minimisation Cycles in India (Van Berkel, 1998a) demonstrates
further development of technologies to improve performance, through a network
of industries from the same industry sector to reduce some of the barriers.
The Brazilian Alcohol programme is an example of indigenous technology development.
Although seen as expensive due to lower oil prices since 1986 (Oliveira, 1991;
Weiss, 1990), it is seen as a success in the field of technology development.
Development has decreased the production costs of alcohol considerably (Goldemberg
and Macedo, 1994; Macedo, 1998). Copersucar, a cooperative of sugar and alcohol
producers, operates a (leading) joint research centre for agricultural and technology
development (Macedo, 1998), as well as training. The centre also maintains a
benchmarking programme to monitor and improve performance among members.
Table 9.3 Summary of case studies
on technology diffusion programmes and policies within countries |
CASE STUDY |
COUNTRIES /ORGANISATION |
TECHNOLOGY |
TYPE |
REFERENCE |
|
|
|
ASSESMENT |
AGREEMENT & IMPLEMENTATION |
EVALUATION & ADAPTATION |
REPETITION |
|
Energy Management in Metal Manufacturing Plant |
Russia |
Monitoring & Control |
|
|
|
|
Avdiushin et al.,1997 |
Waste Heat Recovery & District Heating |
Czech Republic |
Waste Heat Recovery at Rolling Mill & Distribution |
|
|
|
|
Marousek et al.,1998 |
Energy Conservation Audit Programme for SMEs |
Japan |
Energy Auditing |
|
|
|
|
Oshima, 1998 |
Waste Minimisation Circles |
India |
Improved Operation, Maintenance and Management Practices |
|
|
|
|
Van Berkel, 1998a. |
Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council |
India |
Information Collection, Assessment and Promotion on Technologies |
|
|
|
|
TERI, 1997 |
Table 9.4 Summary of case studies
on technology diffusion programmes and policies between countries |
CASE STUDY |
COUNTRIES /ORGANISATION |
TECHNOLOGY |
TYPE |
REFERENCE |
|
|
|
ASSESMENT |
AGREEMENT & IMPLEMENTATION |
EVALUATION & ADAPTATION |
REPETITION |
|
National Cleaner Production Programme |
UNIDO & various host countries |
Training & Facilitation of Cleaner Production |
|
|
|
|
Van Berkel, 1998b |
Energy Efficiency for Large Industry as Business |
Germany India |
Energy Auditing & Training |
|
|
|
|
Menke, 1998 |
COREX Smelt Reduction |
AustriaKorea |
Advanced Ironmaking Process Technology |
|
|
|
|
Joo, 1998a |
Development of the FINEX Process |
AustriaKorea |
Joint Development of new Ironmaking Process |
|
|
|
|
Joo, 1998b |
Pulverised Coal Injection for Blast Furnaces |
USAKorea |
Coal Grinding and Injection Equipment |
|
|
|
|
Joo, 1998c |
Global Semiconductor Partnership |
Global |
Technology Development to Reduce PFC Emissions |
|
|
|
|
Andersen,1998a |
Vietnam Leadership Initiative |
VietnamTNCs |
Technology Cooperation to Phase Out CFC Use |
|
|
|
|
Andersen,1998b |
Mexico Solvent Partnership |
MexicoU.S. |
Phasing out CFC use in Mexican Industry |
|
|
|
|
Andersen,1998c |
Dry Coke Quenching |
China, Japan |
Dry Coke Quenching |
|
|
|
|
Hu et al.,1998 |
|