Evidence from RD&D spending for renewable energy sources in the EU

This paper aims at giving a critical picture of the expenditures in research, development and demonstration (RD&D) for renewable energy sources (RES) in the EU-15 Member States. By providing this objective a number of performance indicators are proposed, evaluated and discussed. RD&D performance is measured in terms of RD&D intensity, e.g. spending per unit of GDP, as well as with regard to RD&D output such as the number of patents in the different sectors of technology.