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Sandia manages new DOE renewable energy program
DOE to invest up to $24 million for breakthrough solar energy products
Sandia National Laboratories has been chosen as project manager of a new Department of Energy renewable energy program called Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS). The project will involve 12 industry teams from around the country. DOE will invest up to $24 million in FY08 and beyond on the project, depending on the availability of funds.
The program will provide critical research and development funding to develop less expensive, higher performing products to enhance the value of solar photovoltaics (PV) systems to homeowners, business owners, and the nation's electric utilities. These projects are part of President Bush's Solar America Initiative, which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015.
"We are pleased to have the opportunity to lead this large effort that promises to be an important component of our country's energy strategy for years to come," says Margie Tatro, director of Sandia's Fuel and Water Systems Center. "Increasing the use of alternative and clean energy technologies such as solar is critical to diversifying the nation's energy sources and reducing our dependence on foreign oil."
DOE and Sandia selected 12 industry teams to participate in the first slate of cost-shared collaborative contracts focusing on conceptual design of hardware components and market analysis: Apollo Solar, EMTEC, Enphase, General Electric, Nextek Power Systems, Petra Solar, Princeton Power, Premium Power, PV Powered, Smart Spark, Florida Solar Energy Center of the University of Central Florida, and VPT Energy Inc.
Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. With main facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Livermore, Calif., Sandia has major R&D responsibilities in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and economic competitiveness.
Almost every state offers incentives for various alternative energy purchases or conservation actions taken by local citizens. This is to reduce the need to build new energy generating plants that use polluting energies such as coal, natural gas or oil. Incentives are sometimes tax deductions on purchases that will benefit the community as well as the consumer. For example, the Federal tax credit for purchasing an alternative fuel or hybrid vehicle.
Rebates are "after the fact" reinbursement of expenditures on fuel or energy efficient equipment, etc.
Incentives usually have a short lifespan...and are implemented to encourage people to take early action. Once a regulation goes into effect requiring the energy conservation measure -- incentives are usually ended.
It pays to invest early! You can save with incentives and rebates.
David Roland-Holst, a professor of agriculture and resource economics at UC Berkeley. "We cannot afford to miss this market opportunity."
California's per-capita electricity use is about 40% less than the national average, Roland-Holst said, largely because of government-mandated energy efficiency standards for utilities, buildings and appliances put into effect over the last four decades.
Roland-Holst found that the lower use has enabled Californians to save $56 billion on energy since 1972. That money was spent in the local economy, he said, instead of on imported oil, out-of-state electricity or building new power plants. The result: 1.5 million additional California jobs with a total payroll exceeding $45 billion.
Programs like AB 32 will have a multiplier effect
California's Environmental Innovation Advantage
Some of California's leading companies agree with Roland-Holst's assessment that environmental innovation could become a pillar of the California economy.Read more about the report: Energy Efficiency, Innovation, and Job Creation in California (by David Roland-Holst, UC Berkeley, Oct. 2008)
"Sapphire's goal is to be the world's leading producer of renewable petrochemical products," said CEO and co-founder
The
end result -- high-value hydrocarbons chemically identical to those in
gasoline -- will be entirely compatible with the current energy
infrastructure from cars to refineries and pipelines.
Not biodiesel, not ethanol. And no crops or farm land required.
The Sapphire platform offers vast advantages -- scientific, economic and social -- over traditional biofuel approaches.
Company
scientists have built a platform that uses sunlight, CO2,
photosynthetic microorganisms and non-arable land to produce
carbon-neutral alternatives to petrochemical-based processes and
products. First up: renewable gasoline.
Sapphire's scalable production facilities can grow easily and economically because production is modular, transportable, and fueled by sunlight -- not constrained by land, crops, or other natural resources.
Developments require new industrial category: Green Crude Production
In
fact, Sapphire's processes and science are so radical, the company is
at the forefront of an entirely new industrial category called 'Green
Crude Production.' Products and processes in this category differ
significantly from other forms of biofuel because they are made solely
from photosynthetic microorganisms, sunlight and CO2; do not result in
biodiesel or ethanol; enhance and replace petroleum-based products; are
carbon neutral and renewable; and don't require any food crop or
agricultural land.
The
final products meet ASTM standards and are completely compatible with
the existing petroleum infrastructure, from refinement through
distribution and the retail supply chain.
Leadership team stars in their fields
Sapphire's
founders and leadership team includes scientists in the fields of
petro chemistry, biotechnology, algal production, plant genomics, and
biogenetics. ARCH Venture Partners, with a long history of taking
innovative life-science technologies to market, is the founding
investor. ARCH is joined by the Wellcome Trust, the world's largest
biomedical research charity, and Venrock, one of the oldest and most
respected venture capital firms in the country.
Sapphire's scientific supporters include
For more information, visit http://www.sapphireenergy.com and http://www.greencrudeproduction.com.
Some policy experts argue that blind faith in technology is a harmful distraction from the hard sacrifices needed to control global warming.
"The temptation is to say, 'Let's get John Wayne on horseback or Bill Gates . . . and solve this problem,' " said Dale Jamieson, director of environmental studies at New York University.
But some scientists say that the potential of such ideas cannot be ignored given the world's political paralysis on controlling emissions and its myopic addiction to cheap and dirty coal. LA TIMES
So it's technology VS conservation VS politics...? Or is it all three in balance and harmony? And maybe a few additional ingredients such as education, values and discipline, collaboration, and paying attention to history lessons about how our ancestors lived, thrived, and survived challenges.
Technologists work their way through the "heavy industrial" stage to get to more practical applications of their breakthrough solutions. The cost of that maturation is sometimes born by a society that eventually have to clean up the damage created by this long pathway. When diversity is included, technology solutions can draw on the elegance of nature's design, history lessons, and common sense based on affordability to vett the technology. Great designers have generous doses of those inspirational sources within one person...others work in teams of siblings or families or buddies to balance their perspectives.
But diversity has been shown time and again to be very smart in the solution process. DIVERSITY takes into account the diverse ingredients in reality.
NREL's fiber optic hydrogen sensor utilizes a non-ignitable, flexible, thin, glass or plastic, fiber optic strand that transmits light to a thin film material. The material changes color in response to the presence of hydrogen. The CRADA allows NREL and Nuclear Filter Technology to develop a full-scale prototype of this technology, which ultimately will result in commercially available products.
Applications include those for the following industries:
- Petrochemical
- Transportation
- Fuel cell
- Fuel production
- Food processing
- Natural gas
- Nuclear waste
Nuclear Filter Technology is also licensing several NREL inventions related to the fiber optic and thin film materials that sense the presence of hydrogen.
SOURCE: Technology Transfer department of National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Clemson
International Center for Automotive Research, has served as a hub and a symbol of the South's
emergence over the last two decades as a powerhouse in automotive
manufacturing. A 2007 industry-wide event, part of the Tennessee Valley Corridor Southeast Partnership, was designed to bring together the region's collective transportation research talent to focus on ways to support continued growth of the automotive industry.
The gathering was symbolic of a growing realization that in matters of
economic development, the South has learned the importance of teamwork.
In the case of transportation, this regional teamwork has resulted in
the cooperation of lawmakers, business leaders and research
institutions on a broad array of initiatives, from creating new fuels
to helping the world's auto manufacturers build lighter, stronger, more
energyefficient cars and trucks.
ORNL Leader in Transportation Research
Oak
Ridge National Laboratory for years has been the leader in
transportation research for the Department of Energy's energy
efficiency programs. More recently, the Laboratory has sought to
connect to the growing automotive presence in the Southeast. The region
is now home to 3,000 automotive suppliers and 10 major automotive
assembly plants including Toyota in Kentucky and Mississippi; BMW in
South Carolina; Ford in Georgia; Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda in
Alabama, as well as Saturn and Nissan—which recently relocated U.S.
headquarters to Nashville—in Tennessee.
Universities and ORNL Provide Research for Supply Chain, Sustainable Manufacturing, Heavy Vehicle Research, Power Electronics, Engines and High-Performance Materials
Surrounding these plants is a set of universities that, along with ORNL, represent extensive expertise in supply chain management, sustainable manufacturing, heavy vehicle research, power electronics, engines and high-performance materials. In 2007, ORNL and the University of Tennessee, along with six southern research universities, announced the Automotive Research Alliance, a regional effort to provide southern automakers access to unique research capabilities.
Research
capabilities outside automakers' own R&D organizations are crucial
to development of new technologies and products, says Tom Bologa, vice
president of engineering, United States, for BMW of North America.
Detroit Center Coordinates ORNL, DOE, DOD and Automotive Suppliers
Although
the South's largest research laboratory, ORNL is not restricting
automotive research efforts to the Southeast. The Department of Energy
recently announced an initiative headquartered at automotive supplier
Delphi Automotive's former R&D center in Detroit that pulls
together ORNL, DOE, the Department of Defense and a consortium of
automotive suppliers. Called USAutoPARTs, the effort will provide both
expertise and facilities to second- and third-tier automotive
suppliers, most of which cannot afford a program of in-house research.
SOURCE: ORNL overview of automotive alternative energy research
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After several years without funding, the Department of Energy's hydropower research program has been revived by Congress for 2008. The new "water power" program includes research on both conventional hydropower technologies and new ocean and instream hydrokinetic technologies. ORNL is the lead laboratory for the hydropower side of this new program. Total funding for the first year is $10 million, a large portion of which will come to ORNL.
ORNL's work will include technology development, demonstration and deployment, resource assessment, environmental studies, siting issues, strategic planning and analysis.
Hydropower provides more than 70% of the renewable electricity in the U.S., but that share has been declining in recent years as other renewables have been growing. The goal of the new DOE Water Power Program is to double generation to more than 500 terawatt hours per year by 2030, which would ensure that hydropower maintains an important place in the nation's renewable energy portfolio.Source: ORNL's hydropower update
(left) Researchers
hike Yellowstone National Park, left, on the hunt for microbes that
could potentially be used in bioenergy production.
(right) They analyze the samples back home in the lab
Bioenergy from Microscopic Organisms
Oak Ridge National Laboratory microbiologist Tommy Phelps sees the untapped potential of bioenergy in shelves of bottles and beakers containing microscopic organisms that just might hold the elusive bug or enzyme capable of digesting large quantities of plant matter into ethanol.
Phelps's current batch of microbes, stockpiled in dozens of bottles of
silt, rocks and soils, was collected from Yellowstone National Park,
where the hot springs that draw millions of summertime visitors also
nurture microscopic life in their boiling waters. These bugs, in turn,
beckon microbiologists like Phelps, who seek a solution to transform
Earth's abundant cellulosic sources into a modern energy supply.
Yellowstone's warm waters offer the promise of microbes that can
rapidly and efficiently degrade cellulose—the woody, leafy matter that
makes up plants. Scientists hope to tap the power of these microbes for
industrial-scale consolidated bioprocessing of plants, including trees
and switchgrass, the species central to the BioEnergy Science Center's
research efforts.
BioEnergy Science Center
The hunt for this cellulosic "super bug" is part of a suite of efforts
under way at the BioEnergy Science Center, headquartered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Since
being named one of three $135 million Department of Energy bioenergy
research centers, researchers at ORNL and its partner institutions have
quickly gotten to work.
DOE's ambitious goal is to replace by 2030
one-third of the nation's transportation fuel with cellulosebased
sources. At these centers, researchers are carrying out the targeted,
fundamental science needed to bridge the gap between the potential of
cellulose-based fuels and their reality.
Current microbes and enzymes are relatively slow at attacking plant matter's complicated and protective structure. Researchers will determine precisely the genes involved in the interaction of the microbes and enzymes to break apart cellulose. Other genes responsible for producing undesirable products, such as acetic acids, will be knocked out in the hope of, ultimately, developing the perfect ethanol-manufacturing microbe. Particular enzymes will be isolated as well and genetically analyzed, with a focus on determining the ideal formula of enzyme or microbe and enzyme to serve as the vehicle for cellulosic ethanol production.
Plants with Good Biofuel Sugars
Microbes, however, are just a piece of the puzzle. Other researchers at the Oak Ridge center are going through similar steps to develop plants with qualities most conducive to processing into biofuel. Similar to the microbial work, researchers will analyze thousands of genetically modified switchgrass and poplar tree samples in order to discover and develop the best varieties for ethanol production. As part of the process, the biofeedstock, together with the microbes and the enzymes, will be joined in a complex matrix of analysis and R&D in order to develop the best biofuel recipe.
On the biomass formation side, the partners will produce samples of plant material genetically altered to modify their cell walls for optimum breakdown into usable sugars. Such altered species might feature lower amounts of lignin—the substance that holds cellulose fibers together—or a reduction in the crystallinity of the cellulose. ArborGen and ORNL will be primarily responsible for creating and studying various altered trees, while scientists from the University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia and the Noble Foundation will take the lead in switchgrass research.
Read more at ORNL
