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Introduction
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy (EERE) contracted with RAND’s Science and Technology Policy Institute
to plan and execute a strategic planning project. The project’s purpose was to
explore possible new approaches to energy supply and use, identify key issues
EERE will face, and consider the implications for EERE’s research and
development (R&D) portfolio. The project had three parts: (1) the E-Vision 2000
Policy Forum, held October 11-13, 2000 in Washington, DC; (2) an assessment of
planning scenarios currently used in the energy community; and (3) a structured
process to identify critical energy issues in 2020 to inform the EERE R&D
portfolio, as viewed by a range of experts.
This volume includes supporting material generated by the project including
conference papers, documentation of the analysis of energy scenarios,
presentation slides on the Delphi expert elicitation process, and links to
conference transcripts.
Conference Preparations
Conference Papers
As part of the preparation for the E-Vision 2000 Conference, RAND on behalf of
EERE commissioned papers on a wide range of topics. The bulk of this volume
consists of the full texts of these papers.
Papers were distributed in advance of the conference and served as points of
departure or reference for the panel discussions and open forum. These papers
represent the views of the authors and not those of RAND, the Department of
Energy, or any other organization with which the authors may be affiliated.
Scenario Analysis
RAND undertook an analysis of future scenarios to help inform EERE’s planning
process. Scenarios enable policy-makers to systematically consider uncertainties
inherent in energy planning, and select strategies that will perform adequately
over a range of conditions. It is important to note that this analysis did not extend
into a full-fledged strategic planning process.
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The analysis resulted in four key observations that illustrate how such scenarios
and studies can provide policy insights despite the uncertainty associated with
long-term projections.
•
Research and development serves as a hedging strategy, providing a means
of dealing with technological uncertainties. One policy challenge is to
identify R&D portfolios that are robust under a range of plausible scenarios.
•
If “decarbonization” policies (i.e., those that result in less use of fossil fuels)
are pursued, many of the scenarios examined suggest natural gas as a
transition fuel, whether the gas is used by fuel cells or advanced combinedcycle turbines. The policy implication is whether sufficient natural gas
supplies could be developed and pipelines and storage infrastructure
constructed in the time frame required by some of the scenarios.
•
The Internet and information technology may be changing the way we use
energy in fundamental ways. The policy challenge is to understand the
mechanism of change to improve projections of demand, use, and
productivity.
•
Such technologies as fuel cells and distributed generation may lead to
fundamental changes in energy systems through their wide range of
potential applications. The key question is how to devise policies that might
foster this process of fundamental change.
The analysis highlighted essential similarities and differences among the many
energy scenarios that have been published in recent years, and served to
illustrate how such scenarios and studies can provide policy insights despite the
uncertainty associated with long-term projections. Additional work is needed to
take these scenarios to the point where the implications for energy R&D can be
more clearly focused and useful to EERE. Full documentation of the scenario
analysis undertaken in conjunction with the E-Vision 2000 process is included in
this volume.
Delphi Exercise
Twenty-seven high-level national energy thinkers participated in a process to
identify the most important issues that will affect energy trends in the next 20
years. The Delphi method is designed to take advantage of the talent, experience,
and knowledge of a group of experts in a structure that allows for an exchange of
divergent views. The results of this process were presented to the E-Vision 2000
Policy Forum. Slides from this presentation are included in this volume.
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This particular application of the Delphi method failed to produce clear
convergence around a limited set of issues. This was due in part to the qualitative
nature of the responses. The question itself failed to stimulate “out of the box”
thinking, but rather produced concerns consistent with the current debate. In the
future, non-energy experts from a wide range of fields will be engaged in
imagining different energy futures and associated R&D investments implicated
by those possible scenarios.
The E-Vision 2000 Conference
The E-Vision 2000 Policy Forum was built around three expert panels and a final
open session. The three main sessions included presented papers and panel
discussions on the following issues:
•
role of information technologies in shaping future energy needs
•
factors shaping worker and student productivity in buildings and the
relationship to energy use
•
effects of applying a “systems” approach to current and future energy
supply and demand practices.
Each panel session began with presentations of the relevant papers, followed by
discussions from the floor. In addition, conference attendees who had expressed
an interest in speaking were given an opportunity to do so on the last day of the
conference. Finally, keynote speakers addressed the audience at various points
on the issues EERE faced.1
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1Conference transcripts are available online See http://www.rand.org/scitech/stpi/Evision/
Transcripts/ for transcripts of all conference sessions.