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The US Department of Energy continues to roll out great cleantech news as we approach the end of the year and the end of an epic presidential term for clean energy, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles. I’m going to roll through four stories from the past two days to catch us up on some of the news.
Next-Gen Batteries from Eos Energy Enterprises?
We’ve covered Eos for more than a decade on and off. It continues to trudge forward. The DOE now thinks it could bring us next-gen batteries. As such, the DOE has just provided Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc. (Eos) with a $303.5 million loan guarantee “to finance the construction of two state-of-the-art production lines that will be able to produce enough stationary batteries per year to annual electricity needs of approximately 130,000 homes.” These facilities will be built in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, and potentially in Duquesne, Pennsylvania.
“All four lines of the project are expected to manufacture 8 GWh of storage capacity annually by 2027, or enough to provide electricity to over 300,000 average U.S. homes instantaneously or meet the annual electricity needs of approximately 130,000 homes if fully charged and discharged daily. The project is expected to create and maintain up to 1000 jobs including both salaried employees and a well-paid manufacturing workforce, unionized by the United Steelworkers—boosting the regional economy and adding to the 16 million jobs created since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office,” the DOE writes.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has successfully implemented a new economic playbook that has boosted America’s competitive standing on the world stage as an innovation leader in the cutting-edge technologies of the future,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennfier M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement will bolster the nation’s energy security while ensuring President Biden’s manufacturing boom continues to deliver for generations to come.”
You can read much more about the technology and why it’s being supported here.
$18 Million for Marine and Offshore Wind Energy
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has provided $18 million in funding for 27 R&D projects in the marine energy and offshore wind energy industries. The projects are spread across 17 universities. Here’s a general overview of these projects from the DOE:
Generate publicly available data and test platforms that will help identify cost reductions and performance improvements to advance marine energy devices.
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- Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon): $500,000
- Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey): $500,000
- University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan): Two awards—$998,700 and $500,000
Advance potential synergies between offshore wind and/or marine energy and aquaculture development. (This topic area is a joint effort between DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office and Wind Energy Technologies Office.)
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- Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts): $375,000
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo, California): $375,000
- University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu, Hawaii): $497,000
- University of New Hampshire (Durham, New Hampshire): $375,000
Support undergraduate senior design and/or research projects in marine energy.
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- Baldwin Wallace University (Berea, Ohio): $499,800
- Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, Florida): $500,000
- Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (College Station, Texas): $500,000
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, Alaska): $500,000
- University of Houston (Houston, Texas): $500,000
- University of Washington (Seattle, Washington): $500,000
- University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, Wisconsin): $500,000
Advance additional ideas that support the Water Power Technologies Office’s Marine Energy Program objectives.
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- Michigan Technological University (Houghton, Michigan): $598,800
- North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina): Two awards—$1,000,000 and $1,000,000
- Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon): Two awards—$999,500 and $1,000,000
- State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook, New York): Two awards—$500,000 and $500,000
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, Alaska): $1,000,000
- University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan): $994,200
- University of New Hampshire (Durham, New Hampshire): Two awards—$985,300 and $1,000,000
- University of Washington (Seattle, Washington): $999,300
You can get more information on these projects here.
You can read the full DOE news release here.
Historic Funding for Energy Efficiency in Federal Government
As part of the $250 million Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) grant program, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) just announced 67 project selections to improve energy efficiency in the US federal government — and thus save US taxpayers money in the long term.
The DOE provides a summary of what these 67 projects cover: “Collectively, the funding will deliver substantial benefits, including:
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 19,370 gas-powered vehicles from the road annually (81,388 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent/year)
- Saving taxpayers $41.7 million annually in energy and water costs
- Achieving energy savings equivalent to powering 35,701 homes annually (883,525 Mbtu/year)
- Conserving more than 1 billion gallons of water annually—enough for 24 million loads of laundry
- Generating carbon pollution-free electricity equivalent to driving 494 million miles in electric cars (176,383 MWh/year)
- Supporting 20 projects (30% of selected projects) located in or adjacent to disadvantaged communities, creating jobs and driving local economic development
- Ensuring that 100% of projects comply with Made in America (Executive Order 14005), which aims to boost American manufacturing and good-paying union jobs.”
Good stuff. This is the second and final installment of the $250 million AFFECT grant program. Read more about the news here.
Improving Grid Resilience
The DOE is providing $20 million for 9 projects focused on providing “critical power equipment advancements.” What does that mean? Here’s more: “Transformers regulate voltage levels as power enters our homes and businesses. They are a critical grid component that ensure the reliability and security of power delivery to our nation’s homes and businesses. Selected projects under the FITT FOA will address the technical challenges of advancing transformers through research, development, and demonstration across a range of distribution to transmission scale applications. DOE’s Office of Electricity (OE) and the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) are co-funding this FOA, contributing $18 million and $2 million, respectively.”
You can get more details on these 9 projects here.
Featured image courtesy of Eos.
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