National Institute of Clean Energy

(N I C E)

"Smarter Minds - Better Planet"

RoadmapS for America’s Clean Energy (RACE)

 

While there have been various efforts to develop clean energy technology roadmaps at the global level (e.g., International Energy Agency) and regional levels, there remains a void for an integrated, comprehensive technology roadmap focused on the development of clean energy technologies for the United States as a whole.  NICE’s multi-year Roadmap for America’s Clean Energy (RACE) project addresses this need. RACE will integrate individually targeted clean energy technology roadmaps into a single strategic program-level technology roadmap.  It is our belief that this type of ‘holistic’ roadmap approach will be useful in helping to accelerate U.S. clean technology development, as it effectively analyzes key technologies, sets out milestones, identifies challenges, proposes solutions, and facilitates communication between major stakehlders to align a common vision.

Definition

 

The term “technology roadmap” has multiple meanings to various audiences and a common definition is critical to NICE’s roadmapping efforts. As such, NICE has adopted the following definition established by the International Energy Agency:

 

“A technology roadmap shall be defined as a dynamic set of technical, policy, legal, financial, market and organizational requirements, identified and agreed to by all stakeholders involved in its development. The effort shall lead to improved and enhanced sharing and collaboration of technology-specific Research, Development, Demonstration & Deployment (RDD&D) information among participants. The goal is to accelerate overall RDD&D in order to deliver an earlier uptake of the specific technology into the marketplace.”

IDENTIFIED TECHNOLOGIES

 

NICE will focus on all certain clean energy technologies (as identified below) that will play the most significant role in securing America’s clean energy technology future.  Technologies such as clean coal, natural gas and nuclear energy actually fall under the category of “cleaner energy technologies”, but will nonetheless play a vital role in America’s clean energy future as powerful transition technologies.  Accordingly, they are included NICE’s RACE project.

Roadmap scope

 

Roadmaps can be developed to fulfill several objectives. The NICE roadmaps for each identified clean energy technology will be broad in scope, and will include technology, policy, financing, and public acceptance aspects of technology development.  Specifically, each technology roadmap will adhere to the following blueprint: