- $63M for Clean Energy Commercialization
- $20M for Geothermal Technologies
- Grants: Renewable Energy Feasibility Studies for Rural Businesses
- Automotive X Prize Winners Announced
- Leading State Energy Efficiency Programs Announced
- Clean Energy Investments Help Meet Poverty Reduction Goals
DOE Awards $63 Million to Advance Clean Energy Commercialization
On September 15, DOE announced it would award $63 million to support commercialization of clean energy technologies, including $57 million for small businesses and $5.3 million for universities.
The awards to small businesses include nearly $11 million from the Recovery Act. They will help 33 small businesses across the country develop manufacturing processes to scale up production of their technologies. Those technologies include 21 renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, as well as six new technologies for power grids, three for next-generation nuclear power, and three for cleaner fossil energy. The awards are the first under DOE’s Small Business Phase III Xlerator program, which builds on the successes of DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.
21 commercialization projects will receive nearly $38 million of the total $57 million for small businesses. They include:
- algae-based biodiesel;
- four fuel-cell technologies, including two designed for biomass fuels;
- high-temperature electrical insulation for geothermal energy applications;
- three solar cell technologies;
- four wind technologies.
- An efficient lighting product that uses organic LEDs;
- innovative capacitors, permanent magnets, and lightweight materials for advanced vehicles;
- four industrial technologies, including a low-cost microchannel heat exchanger, advanced laser-based sensors, a more energy-efficient way to make styrene, and a process that will allow ethanol producers to reduce their use of energy-intensive distillation.
See the DOE press release and a detailed description of the selected projects.
DOE also announced its first-ever funding for universities and nonprofits to build and strengthen "innovation ecosystems" to accelerate movement of cutting-edge energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies from university labs to the market.
The projects will receive a total of $5.3 million in federal funds over three years, which will be leveraged with grantee investments to support $9 million in total projects. See the DOE press release.
University of Central Florida, for example, will hold a "MegaWatt Ventures" event, which combines a technical showcase with a business plan competition and prototyping services. Teams will tap into intellectual property portfolios and research expertise held by Florida universities. Each year, 10 teams will be awarded $10,000 each and have six months to complete a prototype and assemble a start-up team. The 10 teams will then compete for a $100,000 prize, as an incentive to commercialize university-developed technologies. In its third year, MegaWatt Ventures will be expanded to include all universities in the southeastern U.S.
Similar techniques will be deployed in other regions of the country:
- Clean Energy Trust of Chicago, Illinois, for Illinois scientists and entrepreneurs,
- Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for university-originated technologies across New England;
- University of California, San Diego will hold an annual Regional Energy Innovation Challenge;
University of Utah will create the Energy Innovation Commercialization Center for participating western universities and research institutions.
DOE Awards $20 Million for Geothermal Technologies
DOE has selected seven projects to research, develop, and demonstrate cutting-edge geothermal technologies involving low-temperature fluids, geothermal fluids recovered from oil and gas wells, and highly pressurized geothermal fluids.
Today’s geothermal power plants draw on underground reservoirs of water or steam that are heated by "hot spots" in the Earth’s crust. While traditional geothermal plants require reservoirs at temperatures greater than 360°F, hot enough to easily generate steam, the latest generation of power plants use binary-cycle technology to draw on lower-temperature resources.
New technology employs a "working fluid" that, when passed through a heat exchanger, vaporizes at lower temperatures than water. The vapor drives a turbine, which spins a generator to produce power. The vapor is then condensed and reused in a closed cycle. Because the geothermal fluid is kept separate from the working fluid, the two fluids form two separate cycles, hence the name "binary-cycle" technology. See the description and illustration of binary-cycle power plants on the Web site of DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Program.
Three projects are designed to advance binary-cycle technology, including a scale-resistant heat exchanger that could increase power production 40%, and systems that use carbon dioxide and ammonia-water mixtures as working fluids. A fourth project aims to extract more energy from geothermal fluid by developing a generator that can run on waste heat from an existing geothermal plant. The geothermal fluid would be used as the heat source for a heating system, a greenhouse, and a fish farm. This "cascading" use of the geothermal resource would improve the economics of tapping nearly 1500 potential low- to moderate-temperature well sites in towns and medium-sized cities throughout the West.
The three other projects seek to tap unconventional sources of geothermal energy. In one case, ElectraTherm, Inc. will aim to draw power from hot geothermal fluids that oil and gas wells often generate as a byproduct. They plan to develop a low-cost, modular, mobile power plant that can be moved from well site to well site, reducing the need to generate on-site power from diesel generators.
The other two projects will aim to draw power from geothermal fluids that exist at high pressures under certain geological conditions, particularly along the Gulf Coast. Such "geopressured" fluids often contain high concentrations of dissolved natural gas. Louisiana Geothermal will produce power from a resource in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, and NRG Energy will demonstrate cost-effective recovery of heat, kinetic energy, and natural gas from geo-pressured resources. See the DOE press release.
USDA Offers Renewable Energy Feasibility Studies for Rural Businesses
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on September 7 the availability of grants of up to $50,000 for agricultural producers and rural small businesses to conduct feasibility studies for installing renewable energy systems.
The proposed systems can produce heat, electricity, or fuel from renewable energy sources: wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, or hydrogen-based sources. They must be also located in a rural area and owned by the applicant. Under the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), the USDA is making $3 million in grants available, enough to support about 60 grants. Applications are due October 5. See the USDA press release, the USDA’s REAP Feasibility Study Grants Web page, and the related Federal Register notice .
The USDA also announced a $1.9 million award to Lincolnway Energy (Nevada, Iowa) to modify a coal-fired boiler at its ethanol biorefinery to burn wood and other biomass. The award was made under USDA’s Repowering Assistance Program, which pays eligible biorefineries to replace fossil fuels with renewable biomass sources. See the USDA press release, the USDA’s Repowering Assistance Program Web page, and the Lincolnway Energy Web site.
Automotive X Prize Winners Announced
The X Prize Foundation and Progressive Insurance awarded $10 million on September 16 to three teams that won the Progressive Automotive X Prize.
Edison2 (Charlottesville, Virginia) claimed half the prize purse by winning the "mainstream" class with its "Very Light Car" – a 4-seater, 4-wheeled, aerodynamic vehicle that runs on E85. It achieved the energy equivalent of 102.5 miles per gallon of gasoline (MPGe). It also achieved the lowest drag coefficient of any car with four wheels ever tested at Chrysler Proving Grounds, and it weighs only 830 pounds.
Earning a $2.5 million prize with a win in the "alternative side-by-side" class, the "Wave II" from Li-ion Motors Corp. (Mooresville, North Carolina) is an all-electric car powered by lithium-ion batteries. The 2-seater reached 187 MPGe with a driving range over 100 miles. Its distinctive look features an aerodynamic body that encloses all four wheels.
The remaining $2.5 million was awarded to X-Tracer Team Switzerland (Winterthur, Switzerland), whose E-Tracer won the "alternative tandem" class. The enclosed all-electric motorcycle deploys two extra outrigger wheels at low speeds to stabilize the vehicle. It achieved over 200 MPGe – the highest fuel economy in the competition – with a range exceeding 100 miles.
DOE provided $9 million in grants to the competition to support education, outreach, and technical operations. DOE’s Argonne National Lab performed dynamometer tests under controlled laboratory conditions to verify each vehicle’s performance. See the Progressive Automotive X Prize press release and Web site and the websites for Edison2 and Li-ion Motors.
ACEEE Recognizes Leading State Energy Efficiency Programs
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) announced on September 15 its first awards for exceptional state energy efficiency programs.
Colorado’s Energy Star New Homes Program, which promotes Energy Star certification in new residential construction, was lauded for its "excellent model where the state energy office forms regional partnerships with counties, cities, nonprofit organizations, and utilities to offer locally tailored programs."
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) earned kudos for its Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Demonstration Program, which has helped pay for CHP system integration at 65 locations, and its Wastewater Efficiency Program, "a model program for states intent on improving the energy efficiency of wastewater systems."
Hawaii was chosen for its Lead by Example Program, in which state agencies demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency. Hawaii’s state agencies used 5.8% less electricity in 2009 than in 2008, saving about $10 million.
Also in the top 5 is the Maryland Statewide Farm Energy Audit Program invests carbon allowance proceeds to offer energy audits and technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers.
Three emerging programs won awards for their innovative approaches: a California program that gives fleet owners vouchers to halve the extra cost of buying hybrid versions of heavy-duty trucks and buses; a Massachusetts program that provides incentives for creating higher-density, mixed-income housing in smart-growth locations; and a New Jersey program that takes a comprehensive, whole-building approach to energy efficiency in existing commercial and industrial buildings. See the ACEEE press release and report .
UNEP: Clean Energy Investments Help Reduce Poverty
Investing in clean energy is an essential part of meeting international goals to reduce poverty, according to a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report.
"A Brief for Policymakers on the Green Economy and the Millennium Development Goals," released on September 20, asserts the "green economy" and poverty reduction goals are inextricably intertwined.
Focusing on the Millennium Development Goals, which include a goal to halve the number of people in extreme poverty by 2015, the UNEP report contends that a shift to a green economy will not only reduce environmental risks and ecological scarcities, but will also improve human well-being and lessen inequalities. For instance, solar power and efficient lighting can replace oil-based lighting sources, on which the "energy poor" in Africa spend about $17 billion per year. See the UNEP press release and report .
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EREE Network News is a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
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