Energy for Regional Development

The next 50 years of energy development will be challenging for policymakers because the driving forces have changed substantially throughout the past two decades. Techno-economic, strategic, social and environmental aspects of energy in a given region will likely define the future of regional research in this field. Furthermore, the interaction among these issues will be the mainstream of regional energy economics research. First, this chapter briefly describes the current regional energy research topics of exploration, production, transport and end use; it also organizes and classifies some energy policy mechanisms and develops a new approach to help policymakers better design and deploy those mechanisms. Then, it illustrates the most challenging questions and cutting edge research that policymakers will deal with in the next 50 years, as well as the methods that may likely be used to answer these questions. The main finding is that the tendency in energy research will be interdisciplinary, covering correlated quantitative and qualitative disciplinary research to achieve broader and more robust solutions. It will be increasingly important for policymakers to design and deploy energy policies that cover multiple aspects. The connection among policymakers, market and academia in techno-economic, strategic, social and environmental aspects of energy will be the main driving force for future energy research.