| The Energy Department on August 6 announced up to $18 million for 32 projects that will advance geothermal energy development in the United States. The selected projects target research and development in three technology areas: advancing subsurface analysis and engineering techniques for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS)—engineered reservoirs, created beneath the surface of the Earth, where there is hot rock but limited pathways through which fluid can flow; applying a mapping approach called "play fairway analysis" to discover new geothermal resources; and accelerating extraction technologies to unlock domestic supplies of high-value materials like lithium from low- to moderate-temperature geothermal resources. The projects include: -
Integrated EGS R&D ($10 million): Twelve collaborative enhanced EGS research and development projects will use novel techniques such as isotope studies, innovative rock mechanics experiments, and tracer studies integrated with geophysical methods, to increase the precision and accuracy of measuring critical underground reservoir properties over time. -
Play Fairway Analysis ($4 million): Play fairway analysis, a subsurface mapping technique already used for oil and gas exploration, helps to pinpoint where geothermal energy resources remain hidden beneath the Earth's surface. Eleven projects will apply this analysis technique to identify prospective geothermal resources in areas with no obvious surface expression by detecting and plotting underground heat, permeability, and fluid to discover where all three are most likely to be present together. -
Low-Temperature Geothermal Mineral Recovery Program ($4 million): Geothermal brine has the potential to contain relatively high concentrations of rare earths and other valuable materials. Together, these projects will lower the cost and risk of geothermal development, thereby accelerating technological advancement and economical deployment of geothermal energy. See the Energy Department news release. ..   Fishermen's Energy on August 7 highlighted the $46.7 million Energy Department grant, announced in May, which will provide funding over four years to accelerate the commercialization of innovative offshore wind technologies in the United States.This funding will supplement the investment by Fishermen's Energy to finalize construction planning, fabrication, and deployment, and aims to help Fishermen's achieve commercial operation by 2016 of a demonstration wind farm 2.8 miles off of Atlantic City, potentially the first grid-connected offshore wind farm in the United States. Construction is planned to begin onshore in 2015, with offshore construction and commissioning of five turbines by Fishermen's in 2016. In March 2012, the Energy Department announced the start of an initiative to capture wind energy off U.S. coasts. As part of a planned six-year $180 million initiative, these offshore wind projects will accelerate the deployment of breakthrough wind power technologies. See the Fishermen's news release and the May 7 edition of EERE Network News. EcoCAR 3, the latest in the Energy Department's Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition series, will have a kickoff workshop in Novi, Michigan, from September 16 to 18. The Energy Department and General Motors are challenging 16 North American universities to redesign a Chevrolet Camaro into a hybrid-electric car that will reduce environmental impact while maintaining the car's performance. Teams have four years through 2018 to develop those ideas and meet engineering, environmental, and economic goals. The Camaro will keep its body design, while student teams develop and implement eco-power and performance under the hood, retain safety, and meet high consumer standards. The teams also will focus on developing technology that will lower emissions by incorporating alternative fuels. Participants include: Arizona State University, California State University-Los Angeles; Colorado State University; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida and Arizona; Georgia Institute of Technology; McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Mississippi State University; the Ohio State University; Pennsylvania State University; University of Tennessee, Knoxville; University of Alabama; University of Washington; University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; Virginia Tech; Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; and West Virginia University. See the EcoCAR 3 website. The Energy Department on August 4 announced that it is introducing new measures to increase access to scholarly publications and digital data resulting from Department-funded research. The Energy Department's Office of Science has launched the Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science (PAGES), a web-based portal that will provide free public access to accepted peer-reviewed manuscripts or published scientific journal articles within 12 months of publication. As it grows in content, PAGES will include access to Energy Department-funded authors' accepted manuscripts hosted primarily by the Energy Department's national laboratories and grantee institutions, in addition to the public access offerings of publishers. For publisher-hosted content, the Department is collaborating with the publisher consortium CHORUS ( the Clearinghouse for the Open Research of the United States). PAGES contains an initial collection of accepted manuscripts and journal articles as a demonstration of its functionality and eventual expanded content. Additional metadata and links to articles and accepted manuscripts will be added as they are submitted, with anticipated growth of 20,000 to 30,000 articles and manuscripts annually. The Energy Department's Office of Science also has issued new requirements regarding management of digital research data by Office of Science-supported researchers. All proposals for research funding submitted to the Office of Science will be required to include a Data Management Plan that describes whether and how the digital research data generated in the course of the proposed research will be shared and preserved. The new requirements regarding management of digital research data will appear in funding solicitations and invitations issued by the Office of Science beginning Oct. 1, 2014. See the Energy Department news release. |
| From picking up our recyclables to fixing our cable, vehicle fleets help keep our society running—and an increasing number are doing so sustainably. The Energy Department's National Clean Fleets Partnership helps the country's largest vehicle fleets reduce their petroleum use by switching to alternative fuels, adopting advanced technology vehicles, reducing their idling, and implementing other fuel saving techniques. As part of the Clean Cities program, which works with nearly 100 local coalitions, the National Clean Fleets Partnership complements the coalitions' regional efforts to reduce petroleum in transportation. At a recent event organized by the Iowa and Twin Cities coalitions, the Energy Department welcomed three new fleets to the Partnership: Republic Services, Time Warner Cable, and CHS. With more than 2,200 waste and recycling vehicles already running on alternative fuels, Republic Services is off to a great start. The company also demonstrated leadership in the sustainability field through the construction of Idaho's first public compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station. Republic is currently constructing CNG fueling stations in Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina. By connecting Republic to similar fleets, mapping out potential station locations, and providing other technical assistance, the National Clean Fleets Partnership hopes to help Republic Services meet its goal of having more than 2,500 trucks running on alternative fuel by 2015. For the complete story, see the EERE Blog. |
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