ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two technologies that have the potential to be important for climate change and share at least some of the characteristics of PV: direct air capture (DAC) and small nuclear reactors. It describes each technology and then establishes the innovation status of each by surveying the landscape of companies and innovation efforts as of late 2018. Using that information, it applies the nine innovation accelerators from Chapter 9: continuous R&D, public procurement, trained workforce, codify knowledge, disruptive production, robust markets, knowledge spillovers, global mobility, and political economy. It codes each technology as high, medium, and low for the current status of each accelerator. It then characterizes the future prospects for each accelerator. It finds that DAC is better suited to accelerated innovation using the solar model than small nuclear reactors. Still a major scale up challenge remains since DAC will need to grow at twice the fastest PV companies to meet removal targets.
