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Pages with tag Department of Energy

  • Department of Energy Announces $14.5 Million to Advance Geothermal Drilling Technologies
  • Dept of Energy posts videos pushing Solar Energy -- wasn't Trump Admin going to kill Solar?: Most of the Trump Administration appointees are people who seem tasked with killing the departments they're overseeing. The US Department of Energy is headed by Rick Perry, who in the 2012 race had promised to kill that department. We've been worried the DoE programs on solar energy and other clean energy technologies would vaporize, and we'll all fry in a few years because climate change will be running rampant. These are very real concerns, but it's useful to check whether the reality measures up to that fear. These video releases are perhaps a sign that the Dept of Energy will continue promoting solar power.
  • Energy Department Announces $5 Million for Energy Planning, Innovative Energy Practices, and Technical Assistance in 16 States: To hear the rhetoric about the Trump Administration, they are gutting all environmental and renewable energy projects and we are headed back to the dark ages in government policies of all kinds. The reality is that the Dept of Energy is continuing to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency project, and the project funding announced here is an excellent example. This is a $5 million package of funding in three areas - "Energy Planning" at the state level, "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" and other "Clean Energy Activities". I have no idea whether the funding level has decreased or not, just that the DoE is regularly making similar announcements to this, demonstrating that funding is not $0.
  • Energy Department Announces Nearly $32 Million for Innovative Small Businesses Focused on Clean Energy Technologies :

    We're continuing to see rays of possible sunlight at the US Department of Energy. That while the Trump Administration is chock-a-block full of fossil-fuel-loving partisan advocates, that somehow the DoE is still supporting clean energy work. This set of funding supports clean energy technologies, and is part of a [larger $116 program of awards](https://energy.gov/articles/department-energy-announces-116-million-small-business-research-and-development-grants) across a wider range of technologies.

    A spreadsheet showing [all the projects is on the DoE website](https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/06/f35/FY%202017%20EERE%20SBIR%20STTR%20Phase%20II%2C%20Release%202%20Award%20Selections.xlsx).

  • U.S. Energy Department Announces $15 Million for Batteries and Electrification to Enable Extreme Fast Charging:

    The US Department of Energy is pushing for even faster charging time. The agency is ponying up $15 million in R&D grants to develop batteries and infrastrcture supporting 400 kiloWatt charging and a 15 minute recharge time.

  • US Department of Energy is Accelerating the Clean Energy Revolution: The US Department of Energy has for decades led development of clean energy technologies. According to David Friedman, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, since 2008 their group has contributed to a massive cost reduction in clean energy technologies, that drove massive adoption. One hopes that under the new political administration, the Dept of Energy will keep up the good work. This video was published in March 2017, after the new political administration came to office, which might be a good sign. On the other hand, it was filmed on January 8, 2017, before the new political administration came to office. The date is important given the radical shift in policy currently underway, and the budget cuts threatened at the Dept of Energy and EPA and other agencies. This new political administration seems dedicated to undermining the clean energy revolution described in this lecture. The lecture outlines some truly excellent reasons for continuing that revolution.
  • US Dept of Energy has NOT canceled the 2017 Solar Decathlon :

    The Solar Decathlon is a yearly contest held by the US Department of Energy. They line up University teams to each develop a solar-powered high efficiency house. For the contest, each team must develop and build the house on their campus, disassemble it, transport the house to the contest site, reassemble it for the contest, then after the contest is finished to disassemble the house, and transport it back to their campus. The contest encourages lots of cross-field development work, covering 10 areas (hence, a Decathlon), and acts as a job training exercise for the students.

    The big point is that even though the Trump Administration is pushing all things fossil fuels, the US Department of Energy has not canceled this contest. The contest is all about solar power and energy efficiency, but they're letting it proceed as planned. Hurm...

  • US Energy Department Announces $3 Million for High Performance Computing to Advance Clean Energy Manufacturing:

    We're seeing a ray of hope that all is not bleak in Washington DC, because the US Department of Energy is still moving forward on clean energy projects. In this case they're ponying up $3 million in funding for "High Performance Computing" projects meant to be applied to manufacturing processes in the Energy Industry. Specifically: "aid in decision-making, innovate in processes and design, improve quality, predict performance and failure, quicken or eliminate testing, and/or shorten the time of adoption of new technologies."

    What that means is using high end computer-aided-design technologies in the product design process. For example with virtual reality hardware, an engineering team can create a virtual 3D mockup of a product and more quickly iterate the design without having to build physical hardware. Other techniques can simulate physical stresses to predict failures without building physical hardware. In general, by using virtual modeling techniques, an engineering team can iterate through large number of designs in a fraction of the time required to build and test physical hardware.

    The Department of Energy is seeking proposals in these areas --

    • Proposals that require HPC modeling and simulation to overcome impactful manufacturing process challenges resulting in reduced energy consumption and/or increased productivity.
    • Proposals that uniquely exploit HPC modeling and simulation to reduce energy consumption through improved clean energy technology design and clean energy manufacturing.
    • Proposals that accelerate the development and qualification of new energy materials; with a primary emphasis on the nuclear and fossil energy program areas of the Department of Energy.