New approaches
07/03/05
Fuel Cells, microturbines, solar cooling and other energy innovations
What is an innovation?
It is important to understand the definition of innovation, or new approach. Many researchers have made studies and definitions of it: Schumpeter, Utterback, Abemathy, Mensch, Freeman, Perez, Clark, Anderson, Tushman, Teece, Henderson, Clark, Cantner and Hanusch.
An invention is an idea, a sketch or a model for something. Innovations are those inventions which have been commercialised on the market by entrepreneurs, while imitations are innovations which have been copied by others.
In particular, through clear distinction between invention and innovation, assigned commercial criteria for defining innovations, as inventiveness alone would not bring an economic advantage to firms.
There is also a distinction between innovation and the diffusion of innovations. Furthermore, there is the basic distinction between incremental innovations and radical innovations in terms of their socio-economic effects. Following these basic definitions, it is possible to identify at least three partly overlapping taxonomies of innovations: Taxonomies (pdf, 11 KB).
Though there is not always a clear picture on an innovation, infomation gathered in this part of the portal try to introduce or discuss new approaches related to energy efficiency and saving.
Some European Union results are in guide_innovation_en.pdf