DOE Awards $5.5 Million for Automotive X Prize Competition
DOE is providing $5.5 million in ARRA funds to support the X Prize Foundation's work to inspire a new generation of energy efficient vehicles. As part of the Automotive X Prize competition, teams are designing innovative, commercially-viable, high-efficiency vehicles.
Building on a partnership with the X Prize Foundation that began in 2008, the DOE funding will provide technical assistance and expand national education and outreach efforts for the competition. The award also supports President Obama's Strategy for American Innovation, which calls on federal agencies to increase their use of prizes as a tool for promoting technological advances.
The Automotive X Prize is a private, independent, technology-neutral competition developed by the X Prize Foundation, which creates and manages prizes that drive innovators to solve challenges facing the world. The competition offers a $10 million prize purse for clean, production-capable vehicles that achieve the energy equivalent of 100 miles per gallon of gasoline.
DOE will provide technical expertise to ensure that each of the competition designs is reviewed correctly and consistently. Funding will also support expanded outreach and education efforts that will focus on promoting public awareness of the science and engineering behind energy-efficient vehicle designs. See the DOE press release and the Automotive X Prize Web site.
Treasury Department Allocates $2.2 Billion in Renewable Energy Bonds
The U.S. Department of Treasury announced on October 27 a new allocation of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) totaling $2.2 billion for 805 recipients across the country.
The energy bonds are designed to help government agencies, public power providers, and cooperative electric companies obtain low-cost financing for clean energy development projects. Drawing in part upon ARRA funds, the bonds function as "tax credit" bonds - bondholders receive a federal tax credit in lieu of a portion of the interest on the bond. That keeps interest payments low for the project owner.
For this round of CREBs, federal tax credits will cover 70% of a bond's interest. Because the Treasury Dept. has a limit on the tax credits it can provide to such CREBs, it must allocate bonds in advance.
For the current round of CREB allocations, eligible agencies and organizations had to apply to the Treasury Department by August 4. Overall, amounts and recipients selected included: $609 million to be issued by power co-ops in 17 states, topped by Alaska with a total of $124 million for wind power projects; $800 million for governmental entities in 17 states, headed by California governments authorized to allocate $640 million in bonds for a variety of solar and hydroelectric projects; and $800 million for public power providers in six states, led by Washington state utilities, which can issue almost $500 million in bonds for various wind and hydropower projects. See the Treasury Department press release and the complete list of allocations (PDF 1.21 MB).
9 Federal Agencies Expedite Transmission Lines on Federal Lands
DOE and eight other federal departments and agencies announced on October 23 that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to speed construction of electric transmission lines on federal lands.
The goal of the agreement is to expedite the approval of new transmission lines, which are vital to modernizing the grid and increasing access to renewable energy. President Obama noted the MOU "will help break down the bureaucratic barriers that currently make it slow and costly to build new transmission lines on federal lands."
