Lessons learned from Alternative Fuels Experience

Expert Workshop
Virtually
30^th October, 2020

Invitation and Programme

Background

Decarbonizing the transport sector is one of the key goals of national and international climate change mitigation policies. Alternative fuels and propulsion systems are of particular importance in reducing GHG emissions from this area. However, experience with various attempts to introduce alternative fuels and vehicles to the market has shown that this is not always successful. Several countries in the AMF TCP have therefore conducted joint work on lessons learned from market launch attempts.

More information on the project here.

Goal of the workshop

The goal of the workshop was to verify our findings and to derive key messages. Within this workshop the findings from different case studies in the participating countries were presented. The lessons learned and recommendations derived from our project were discussed with the workshop participants, interested experts inside the AMF TCP as well as external experts.

Case Studies

Presentations

• Introduction of IEA AMF Task 59 - Andrea Sonnleitner, BEST Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies
• Lessons Learned from the Austrian Case Studies - Andrea Sonnleitner, BEST Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies
• Lessons Learned from the Chinese Case Study - Ye Wu, Tsinghua University
• Lessons Learned from the Finnish Case Studies - Nils-Olof Nylund, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
• Lessons Learned from the Japanese Case Studies - Masayuki Kobayashi, Organization for the Promotion of Low Emission Vehicles (LEVO)
• Lessons Learned from the Swedish Case Studies - Magnus Lindgren, Swedish Transport Administration
• Lessons Learned from the U.S. Case Studies - Michael Wang, Argonne National Laboratory

Discussion

In the discussion the most important points seen in the variety of case studies were discussed. There is the need for long-term policies and comprehensive strategies to really guarantuee a successful implementation of alternative fuels or vehicles. This also needs to be a package of policies and measures with financial and non-financial incentives. Alternative fuels need to show benefits regarding costs, domestic production or convenience compared to conventional fuels. Also the different types of stakeholders are important, they should be involved and gain some kind of benefit from the market introduction of alternative fuels. The coordination between government-academia and industry is necessary for a successful implementation. There is also the need for improving the acceptance within the general public and among other stakeholders by education work and information campaign.

Key message

The key message from this workshop is that for the successful implementation of alternative fuels and vehicles in the transport system there is the need for long-term and comprehensive policies which include markets, stakeholders and different technologies to gain benefits for all types of stakeholders along the value chain.

For any questions you might have do not hesitate to contact the Task Manager Andrea Sonnleitner (andrea.sonnleitner@best-research.eu).