Technological and institutional maturity based strategies to stimulate the implementation of infrastructural innovations

Abstract

Climate change is a major global problem which is related to the increase in greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a potential solution to this problem. However, the implementation of CCS seems to be challenging. The port of Rotterdam also intended to reduce its CO2 emission with the implementation of CCS. However, the first two CCS projects were not successful. When making investment decisions on innovative technological projects the TRL scale invented by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) can be useful to compare the maturity of technologies. However, for technologies in sociotechnical systems, such as the implementation of CCS, it might be useful to also consider the maturity of the institutional network. Hence, a NRL scale was proposed by Krijger (2016) and Groenendaal (2018). However, before the NRL scale can be widely used it needs first more validation. Furthermore, it is not known how the information obtained from the NRL/TRL matrix can be used to formulated strategy to stimulate the successful implementation of an infrastructural innovation. To research these two aspects a historical case study on the implementation of CCS in the port of Rotterdam was combined with extensive literature research and expert interviews. Three factors that prevented the increase of the NRL of CCS in the port of Rotterdam were identified: public debate, economic aspects and regulatory processes. In order for the actors of the institutional network to manage these exogenous factors effectively it was suggested to formulate and align nonmarket strategies regarding CCS. Furthermore, the research showed that the NRL/TRL matrix could be improved on completeness and unambiguousness.