New Energy: Conversations with Early-Career Energy Researchers is a new online series featuring graduate, post-doctoral, and other early-career researchers sharing their discoveries and perspectives on energy-related topics. From policy to analysis to emerging research, this bi-weekly series will give anyone interested in energy the opportunity to learn from the rising stars in the field. 

This week, Bjarne Steffen, a senior researcher within the Energy Politics Group at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and a lecturer at the Institute of Science, Technology and Policy, also at ETH Zurich, will give a talk titled: The Role of Finance in the Low-Carbon Energy Transition." Valerie Karplus, Assistant Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, will moderate. 

About the Talk: Given the magnitude of investment needs for clean energy infrastructure, the availability and cost of capital is crucial for successful energy transitions. For assets such as renewable energy projects that are typically realized in project finance structures, private banks play an important role, and public policy can take an active part in improving financing conditions. However, empirical research rarely addressed to role of financial actors and policies for the energy transition, and limited data e.g. on cost of capital is available for model-based research in the field. Drawing on recent work on several geographies (including Europe, Australia, and developing countries), the presentation covers new insights on drivers for the choice of financing structures, on how the cost of capital depends on technology maturity and experience in the finance industry, as well on how policy instruments like state investment banks can be used effectively. He will also discuss ongoing research to include finance into energy system modeling, and implications for research on the low-carbon energy transition more generally.

View a recording of this talk.