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The President's FY 2013 EERE budget will continue to support wind energy and other renewables.
Credit: Vestas
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President Obama on February 13 released his
Fiscal Year 2013 DOE budget request to Congress, which proposes $27.2
billion. For the DOE's Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy,
the President requested $2.27 billion, reaffirming the Administration’s
commitment to an energy future that is cleaner, less expensive, and full
of new jobs.
The blueprint includes investments in
innovation, job-creating clean energy technologies, and national
security. Specifically, the FY 2013 request promotes efforts to cut the
cost of solar energy by 75% by the end of the decade and continue
crosscutting research into clean energy technologies that can lead to a
one-third reduction in U.S. dependence on oil by 2025.
The budget will support EERE goals, including
improving building energy efficiency 50% by 2030, with 1 million homes
weatherized by 2013; reducing energy consumption of manufactured goods
across targeted product life-cycles by 50% or more; decreasing federal
energy demand by 30% by 2015 (using a 2003 base) and federal greenhouse
gas emissions by 28% by 2020 (using a 2008 base); improving cars to
achieve fuel economy greater than 60 miles per gallon by 2025 and
creating batteries by 2015 that cost half of what they do today; making
solar energy competitive with other energy sources through the SunShot
Initiative; and enabling wind energy to contribute 20% of U.S.
electricity use by 2030.
Among the highlights: $60 million to perform
critical research on energy storage systems and devise new approaches
for battery storage; $350 million for the Advanced Research Projects
Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to continue support for promising early-stage
research projects that could deliver game-changing clean energy
technologies; $120 million to support energy frontier research centers;
and $140 million for five existing energy innovation hubs and to
establish a new hub to focus on grid systems and the tie between
transmission and distribution systems. The FY13 budget request also
highlights steps taken by DOE to reduce costs. For example, the agency
will reduce, consolidate, or move 40% of its websites to the Energy.gov
platform to increase communication and transparency as well as
streamline website infrastructure processes, which will save more than
$10 million a year. See the DOE press release, the FY 2013 EERE budget request , and the proposed FY 2013 DOE budget.
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DOE is offering $12 million to help speed solar energy innovation.
Credit: LBNL
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DOE announced on February 8 more than $12
million in funding to speed solar energy innovation from the lab to the
marketplace. The funding, which will be made available through the
agency's SunShot Incubator program, will support advancements in
hardware, reductions in soft costs, and the development of pilot
manufacturing and production projects. Each awardee will make
significant cost-share commitments.
The SunShot Incubator program, part of the
SunShot Initiative, helps launch new startups and business units within
existing companies to accelerate innovative solar technology
development. Since 2007, DOE has invested $60 million through the
incubator in promising technologies as they are brought from lab to
marketplace. These investments have catalyzed $1.6 billion in private
sector support.
The current funding opportunity builds on the
SunShot Incubator Program's history of successful partnerships. Nearly
40 companies have participated in the Incubator, including
Colorado-based PrimeStar Solar. In 2007, DOE's National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) and PrimeStar began a cooperative research and
development agreement to transition NREL's cadmium telluride solar
technology to commercial production. PrimeStar later received a $3
million Incubator award to commercialize its low-cost photovoltaic solar
panels. PrimeStar is now owned by GE, which has launched a $600 million
investment in PrimeStar and the construction of a large-scale
manufacturing plant in Colorado that will employ more than 350 workers
to produce state-of-the-art solar panels.
DOE announced on February 10 the three winning
startup companies out of the 14 participating in the "America's Next Top
Energy Innovator" challenge. The decision was based on the nearly half a
million votes cast online from January 26 through February 6, as well
as expert review. The startups, using technology licensed from DOE's
national laboratories, are from Iowa, Maryland, and Oregon. The winning
teams will be featured at the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit,
which will bring clean energy leaders together at the end of the month.
IPAT, based in Nevada, Iowa, is using gas
atomization technology developed at Ames Laboratory to make titanium
powder with processes that are ten times more efficient than those made
using the traditional powder-making method, significantly lowering the
cost of the powder to manufacturers for a range of parts. Umpqua Energy,
in Medford, Oregon, is using an Argonne National Laboratory technology
to develop a system that allows a gasoline engine to operate in an
"extreme lean burn" mode to increase gasoline mileage. Vorbeck
Materials, in Jessup, Maryland, is using a method developed at Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory for building tiny chemical structures to
greatly improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries. See the DOE press release and the challenge website.
The global wind industry installed more than
41,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power capacity in 2011, a 21% increase in
global installed capacity, according to a report released on February 7
by the Global Wind Energy Council. This brings the total installed
capacity globally to more than 238,000 MW. About 75 countries worldwide
have commercial wind power installations, with 22 of them already
passing the 1 gigawatt (GW) level. New markets in Latin America, Africa,
and Asia are driving the market, the report said.
China has solidified its position as global
market leader, with a cumulative capacity of more than 62,000 MW,
despite having faced a challenging year. The U.S. wind sector rebounded
from a tough 2010 with installations of more than 6,800 MW in 2011.
Canada reported a record year in 2011, surpassing the 5,000 MW mark. See
the Global Wind Energy Council press release. |
Turbines off NYC East River Will Power 9,500 Homes
As part of the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy
Project, 30 turbines are being installed along the strait that connects
the Long Island Sound with the Atlantic Ocean in the New York Harbor.
The project, led by Verdant Power, Inc., is the first ever commercially
licensed tidal energy project in the United States. The turbines are
scheduled to be fully installed by 2015 and will use the flow of the
East River and tides to generate 1,050 kilowatts of electricity—enough
to power 9,500 New York homes.
The turbines will also collect important data
about environmental impacts on fish and river sediment and provide jobs
to a team of technicians who will maintain and monitor the equipment.
DOE helps advance water power technologies by
funding research to determine the size of the water resource and by
developing innovative technologies to unleash its energy potential. The
department began providing Verdant Power with funding in 2008 to improve
the turbines’ blade design. Verdant had been successfully developing
and testing turbine prototypes in the East River since 2002, but those
turbine rotors were not durable enough to be scaled up for
commercialization. With the DOE assistance, Verdant designed and tested
new blades, which are stronger and more reliable—allowing them to
capture more energy from faster currents at greater depths and at a
lower cost. Read the complete story in the DOE Energy Blog.
CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES (CCRES)
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