http://ec.europa.eu/energy/studies/doc/ ... energy.pdfData from the IEA Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) Database shows historic expenditures made by 19 Member States on energy-related programmes. For the energy supply technologies, the cumulative RD&D expenditure by EU Member State reported was €(2012) 87 billion in the period 1974 - 2007, which is on average €(2012) 2.6 billion per year. Around 78% of the funding has benefited the nuclear sector, of which the majority is on nuclear fission. The remaining RD&D expenditures were divided about equally over renewables (12%) and fossil fuel technologies (10%).
Most of the RD&D funding occurred before 1990. However, nuclear fission continued to receive most RD&D funding up to 2007. Of the non-nuclear energy sources, coal received most funding until 1989.
Since (and also before) then, RD&D support for coal has declined until around the beginning of this century, after which is has slightly increased again with an emphasis on clean coal technologies.
Funding of renewables started from 1974 onwards. In 2007, RD&D for solar and bioenergy was the most prominent among the renewable sources.
I'm surprised that I was surprised to see this. Not really shocked, mind (blame the French?)
The whole report is a bit of an eye-opener...
(My emph)To provide a more holistic picture, DG Energy commissioned a project to provide information on all costs of energy, including external costs, and to quantify the extent of public interventions in the energy market. This report gives the outcome of this project...
Nice graphics. Too good to waste on the 'Nuclear' forum, anyway.
