Agriculture Department invests $25 million in bioenergy research

The USDA has awarded $25 million for bio-energy research and development.
Credit: Todd Johnson

The U.S. Department of agriculture (USDA) on 11 January awarded $25 million for four projects in four States for the financing of research and development of next-generation renewable energy and organic products from a variety of biomass. The projects will be funded by USDA National Institute of food and agriculture by the biomass research and development initiative and the Energy Ministry will make more awards from this program. Research helps to increase the availability of alternative renewable fuels and organic products of the country's energy resources to diversify. Each award has been through a competitive selection process.

Fellows shall contribute at least 20% of matching funds for research and development projects and 50% matching funds for demonstration projects. Winners must keep track of projects, the integration of science and research in three areas of Engineering: feedstocks development, development of bio-fuels and organic products and development analysis of biofuels and bioproducts.

The following projects were selected for the awards: Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, are trying the rape crop camelina provide a low-cost bio-fuel and sunflower oils feedstock; Ohio State University in Wooster, Ohio, that an anaerobic digestion system for the production of liquid transportation fuels and electricity from animal dung, wood biomass, agricultural residues and energy crops to focus on; Ceramatec, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, the infrastructure compatible renewable diesel, biolubricants and BioPower lignocellulose converted; and the USDA Agricultural Research service in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, a distributed farm technology will develop for the conversion of waste wood, horse manure, switchgrass and other perennial grasses in bio-fuels and high-quality specialty chemicals. See the press release of the USDA.

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Energy Department Invests in Pioneering U.S. Offshore Wind Projects

The Energy Department has taken another step toward establishing U.S. offshore wind energy projects in the same way turbines like these harness wind power in Europe.
Credit: Seimens

The Energy Department on December 12 announced seven awards for offshore wind projects in Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia. These engineering, design, and deployment projects will support innovative offshore installations in state and federal waters for commercial operation by 2017.

In the initial phase, each project will receive up to $4 million to complete the engineering, design, and permitting phases of this award. The Department will select up to three of these projects for follow-on phases that focus on siting, construction, and installation and aim to achieve commercial operation by 2017. These projects will receive up to $47 million each over four years, subject to Congressional appropriations.

The seven projects selected for the first phase of this six-year initiative are located on the East and West Coasts, in the Gulf of Mexico, and Lake Erie. On the East Coast, Fishermen's Atlantic City Windfarm plans to install up to six direct-drive turbines in state waters three miles off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey, with expected commercial operation by 2015; Statoil North America of Stamford, Connecticut, plans to deploy four 3-megawatt wind turbines on floating spar buoy structures in the Gulf of Maine off Boothbay Harbor at a water depth of approximately 460 feet; the University of Maine plans to install a pilot floating offshore wind farm with two 6-megawatt direct-drive turbines on concrete semi-submersible foundations near Monhegan Island; and Dominion Virginia Power of Richmond, Virginia, plans to design, develop, and install two 6-megawatt direct-drive turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach.

In the Gulf, Baryonyx Corporation, based in Austin, Texas, plans to install three 6-megawatt direct-drive wind turbines in state waters near Port Isabel, Texas. On the Pacific Coast, Seattle, Washington-based Principle Power plans to install five semi-submersible floating foundations outfitted with 6-megawatt direct-drive offshore wind turbines in deep water 10 to 15 miles from Coos Bay, Oregon. And inland, the Lake Erie Development Corporation, a regional public-private partnership based in Cleveland, Ohio, plans to install nine 3-megawatt direct-drive wind turbines on "ice breaker" monopile foundations. These are designed to reduce ice loading on Lake Erie, seven miles off the coast of Cleveland.

Offshore wind offers more than 4,000 gigawatts of electricity potential in the United States. According to a new report commissioned by the Energy Department, a U.S. offshore wind industry that takes advantage of this abundant domestic resource could support up to 200,000 manufacturing, construction, operation, and supply-chain jobs across the country and drive over $70 billion in annual investments by 2030. See the Energy Department press release, the Offshore Wind Technology Web page, and the Wind Program website.

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Energy Department Invests $29 Million in Solar Energy Grid Solutions

The Energy Department on December 7 announced a $29 million investment in four projects that will help advance affordable, reliable clean energy for U.S. families and businesses. These projects, part of the Energy Department's SunShot Initiative, are aimed at improving grid connection and reducing installation costs through innovative plug-and-play technologies and reliable solar power forecasts.

The Department announced a $21 million investment over five years to design plug-and-play photovoltaic (PV) systems that can be purchased, installed, and operational in one day. Plug-and-play PV systems will make the process of buying, installing, and connecting solar energy systems faster and less expensive for homeowners. Fraunhofer USA’s Center for Sustainable Energy Systems in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will develop PV technologies that allow homeowners to easily select the right solar system for their house and install, wire and connect to the grid. Additionally, North Carolina State University will lead a project to create standard PV components and system designs that can adapt simply to any residential roof and can be installed and connected to the grid quickly and efficiently. This effort is part of the Department’s broader initiative to bring down "soft" or non-module hardware costs.

The Department also announced an $8 million investment in two projects to help utilities and grid operators better forecast when, where, and how much solar power will be produced at U.S. solar energy plants. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, based in Boulder, Colorado, will research methods to understand cloud impact and develop short-term prediction techniques based on this work. Also, the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Armonk, New York, will lead a new project based on the Watson computer system that uses big data processing and self-adjusting algorithms to integrate different prediction models and learning technologies. These projects are working with the Energy Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to improve the accuracy of solar forecasts and share the results of this work with industry and academia. Enhanced solar forecasting technologies will help power system operators to integrate cost-competitive, reliable solar energy into the electricity grid.

The SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. See the Energy Department press release.

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Energy Department Invests in Innovative Manufacturing Technologies

The Energy Department announced on June 12 it has awarded more than $54 million for 13 projects across the country to advance transformational technologies and materials. These projects, which are leveraging approximately an additional $17 million in cost share from the private sector, can help U.S. manufacturers increase the energy efficiency of their operations and reduce costs. The projects will be in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Utah, and will develop cutting-edge manufacturing tools, techniques, and processes that will be able to save companies money by reducing the energy needed to power their facilities.

From improving manufacturing processes that reduce the energy needed to make components for aircraft and vehicles, to lowering the production costs of carbon fiber for a wide range of clean energy products, these projects represent a major investment in the solutions that will transform energy-intensive manufacturing technologies and materials used by industry in the United States. The results of these projects could produce large improvements in energy productivity, reduce pollution, and boost product output, while creating jobs and helping American companies expand export opportunities globally. Each project will advance technologies early enough in their development cycles to permit the full scope of their technical benefits to be shared across a broad cross-section of the domestic economy. Collectively, these projects are part of the Obama Administration’s effort to support the creation of good jobs by helping U.S. manufacturers reduce costs, improve quality, and accelerate product development. See the DOE press release and the project descriptions.

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President's 2013 Energy Budget Invests in Solar, Energy Storage and ARPA-E Research

President Obama on February 13 released his Fiscal Year 2013 budget request to Congress, which proposes $27.2 billion for DOE. The blueprint includes investments in innovation, in the job-creating clean energy technologies, and in national security strategy. 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 of dependence on oil by 2025.

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 president's FY13 budget request also highlights steps taken by DOE to reduce costs, including for example, reducing, consolidating, or moving 40% of its websites to the Energy.gov platform to increase communication and transparency, and streamline website infrastructure processes, which will save more than $10 million a year. See the DOE press release and the proposed FY 2013 DOE budget.

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