Supporting Innovation to Reduce Time to Market: The French Policy

The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with Mission Innovation, hosted this webinar on accelerating clean energy innovation in France.

The webinar began with a brief overview of the Mission Innovation initiative, which aims to achieve clean energy technology performance breakthroughs and cost reductions. The 21 governments participating in Mission Innovation represent well over 80% of global public investment in clean energy research and development. Each participating government has pledged to seek to double its clean energy innovation budget over the next five years.

Following the overview of the Mission Innovation initiative, French officials from the Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and Marine Affairs and from the Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), the national agency in charge of energy efficiency and renewable energies, described how energy research and innovation are supported in France. The panelists highlighted the new national strategy for energy research and the ambitious “investments for the future” program, which has dedicated more than €3 billion to research and innovation in the field of clean energy.

The webinar presentations were followed by an interactive question and answer session with the audience.

Panelists

François Moisan

François Moisan a graduate on Electrical Engineer from Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité de Paris (1972) and he holds a doctorate in Economic Science (Université de Grenoble, 1983). He began his career at the National Scientific Research Center (CNRS) in 1978 to set up the research program on solar energy. He was Director of prospective at the French Agency on Environment and energy (ADEME) in 1992 and was named scientific Director in 2004. He is presently executive Director of Strategy, Research and International Affairs and Scientific Director of ADEME. He is in charge of managing the “Investment for the Future” public fund, which is operated by ADEME and dedicated to supporting innovation in low- carbon technologies promoted by companies. François Moisan has been involved in energy efficiency policies for more than 30 years and has participated in several national and international committees on energy efficiency policies.

Guillaume Meheut

Guillaume Meheut is Director of Cabinet at the General Directorate for Energy and Climate Change of the French Ministry of Environment, Energy and the Sea. In this role, Mr. Meheut helps coordinate and implement the ministry’s research and innovation strategy, in particular in the field of clean energy. He participates in the steering committee of actions supporting clean energy RD&D within the French “investments for the future programme”, which operated by ADEME and ANR. Previously, Mr. Meheut worked for the French telecommunications regulation authority ARCEP, on the development of high-speed broadband networks and services.