U.S. Energy Department Invests $540 Million in Clean Energy Innovation

The U.S. Energy Department awarded more than $540 million for research in clean energy technologies and low-carbon manufacturing to 54 state universities and 11 national labs across 34 states and the District of Columbia, according to an Aug. 25 news release. The investment will facilitate research activities that are crucial to advance solar and nuclear power, energy storage, carbon capture, and innovative manufacturing processes, and also result in more efficient use of critical minerals for energy production and manufacturing.

The recently enacted CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act, and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act also include funding to improve research in such clean energy technologies and also support the infrastructure necessary to deploy them.

Western Reserve University in Ohio, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Ames National Laboratory in Iowa are among the universities and national laboratories chosen to receive funding for research projects across the country. More than 74 percent of the funding will be utilized for setting up 43 Energy Frontier Research Centers, which will focus on energy storage for quantum information science projects. Others will focus on fundamental research on advanced clean energy technologies and low-carbon manufacturing.

Numerous projects include fundamental research supporting the U.S. energy department’s Energy Earthshots Initiatives that offer reasonable, and consistent clean energy way out within the timeframe set. The initiatives will drive the country to solve climate change problems, help to achieve a carbon-free economy by 2050, and help with new job creation in the green economy.

Energy Earthshots Initiatives

The Energy Earthshots Initiatives include the following energy goals:

• The Hydrogen Shot, announced in June 2021, aims to reduce the cost of hydrogen production by 80 percent.
• Long Duration Storage Shot announced in July 2021, aims to reduce the energy storage cost by 90 percent. This enables the U.S. to access reasonable grid storage for clean power—anytime, anywhere.
• Carbon Negative Shot announced in November 2021, aims to reduce CO2 from the atmosphere and store it at a reasonable cost.

Projects were selected under the funding options open to universities, and research institutions by competitive peer review.

Projects were awarded based on the outcome of peer review. Final projects awarded are subject to dialogue between the energy department and the awardees.