| The Energy Department on May 7 announced the selection of three pioneering offshore wind demonstrations to receive up to $47 million each over the next four years to deploy innovative, grid-connected systems in federal and state waters by 2017. These projects—located off the coast of New Jersey, Oregon, and Virginia—will help speed the deployment of more efficient offshore wind power technologies. The three projects selected are aimed at deploying offshore wind installations in U.S. waters by 2017: -
Fishermen’s Energy will install five 5-megawatt direct-drive wind turbines approximately three miles off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. This project will utilize an innovative, U.S.-developed twisted jacket foundation that is simpler and less expensive to manufacture and install than traditional offshore wind foundations. -
Principle Power will install five 6-megawatt direct-drive wind turbines approximately 18 miles off the coast of Coos Bay, Oregon. The U.S.-developed WindFloat semi-submersible floating foundation will be installed in water more than 1,000 feet deep, demonstrating an innovative solution for deep water wind turbine projects and lowering costs by simplifying installation and eliminating the need for highly specialized ships.. -
Dominion Virginia Power will install two 6-megawatt direct-drive wind turbines 26 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, utilizing a U.S.-designed twisted jacket foundation. Dominion’s project will demonstrate installation, operation and maintenance methods for wind turbines located far from shore. Additionally, the Dominion project will install and test a hurricane-resilient design. The Energy Department’s efforts to advance innovative offshore wind technologies support the Obama Administration’s comprehensive National Offshore Wind Strategy to develop a sustainable, world-class offshore wind industry. As part of that strategy, the Energy Department continues to work with partners across the government, including the Department of the Interior, to conduct resource assessments, streamline siting and permitting, and overcome technical and market challenges to installation, operations, and grid connection. See the Energy Department news release, the Energy Blog, and the Wind Program's Offshore Wind Web page.   The Energy Department and its Oak Ridge National Laboratory on April 29 released a renewable energy resource assessment detailing the potential to develop new electric power generation in waterways across the United States. The report estimates over 65 gigawatts (GW) of potential new hydropower development opportunities across more than three million U.S. rivers and streams—nearly equivalent to the current U.S. hydropower capacity. The New Stream-reach Development Assessment capitalizes on recent advancements in geospatial datasets and represents the most detailed evaluation of U.S. hydropower potential at undeveloped streams and rivers to date. The greatest hydropower potential was found in western states, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming led the rest of the country in new stream-reach hydropower potential. Hydropower makes up 7% of total U.S. electricity generation and continues to be the United States’ largest source of renewable electricity, avoiding over 200 million metric tons of carbon emissions each year. Hydropower also provides reliable baseload power day and night—providing greater flexibility and diversity to the electric grid and allowing utilities to integrate other renewable sources such as wind and solar power. See the Energy Department news release. The Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) on April 29 announced up to $60 million for two new programs to detect and measure methane emissions and develop innovative localized thermal management systems that cut the energy needed to heat and cool buildings. ARPA-E’s Delivering Efficient Local Thermal Amenities (DELTA) program will make up to $30 million available to help develop innovative localized heating and cooling devices to expand temperature ranges within buildings—enhancing personal comfort while saving energy. While most of today’s heating and cooling systems are designed to heat and cool entire buildings, DELTA seeks to develop both installed and wearable devices that can regulate temperatures in close proximity to a building’s occupants. This localized thermal management will enable buildings to operate in wider temperature ranges while still ensuring occupant comfort, which would dramatically reduce the energy consumption and associated emissions. ARPA-E's Methane Observation Networks with Innovative Technology to Obtain Reductions (MONITOR) program will help the oil and gas sector reduce methane emissions and build a more sustainable energy future. The program will make up to $30 million available to help U.S. teams develop low-cost, highly-sensitive systems that detect and measure methane associated with the production and transportation of oil and natural gas. If successful, MONITOR's technologies could accurately and cost-effectively measure methane emissions and provide a detection network to mitigate the release of this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. See the ARAP-E news release. The Energy Department on April 29 announced up to $10 million to demonstrate and deploy innovative alternate transportation technologies for cargo vehicles, designed to help reduce U.S. reliance on gasoline, diesel, and oil imports. Electrifying cargo transportation vehicles and infrastructure will reduce petroleum use, carbon emissions, and air pollution at transportation hubs, such as ports. The Energy Department seeks applicants to demonstrate cost-effective zero-emission cargo transport systems and collect data on the performance and cost, to help clarify the benefits and viability of this approach. This funding opportunity is open to local governments and private companies, with federal funds matched at a 50% cost share. See the Energy Department news release and the funding announcement. The Energy Department on April 30 launched a new project led by its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sandia National Laboratories to support the Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Research and Station Technology (H2FIRST) project. H2FIRST is a public-private partnership introduced in 2013 by the Energy Department and industry stakeholders to address the challenge of hydrogen infrastructure. Established by the Energy Department’s Fuel Cell Technologies Office, the H2FIRST project will draw on existing and emerging core capabilities at the national laboratories, aim to reduce the cost and time of new fueling station construction, and improve the stations’ availability and reliability. By focusing on these aspects of the hydrogen fueling infrastructure, the partnership hopes to accelerate and support the widespread deployment of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. H2FIRST’s technical goal is to develop and apply physical testing, numerical simulation, and technology validation to help create low-cost, high-performance materials, components, and station architectures. H2FIRST also will collect and distribute data supporting industry’s efforts to reduce the costs of integrated fueling systems and networks. Two research facilities, Sandia’s Center for Infrastructure Research and Innovation in California and NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility in Colorado, will serve as hubs for H2FIRST. See the Sandia news release and the NREL news release. |
| Unified Solar, a student team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), won the regional prize of the Energy Department’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition at the MIT Clean Energy Prize on April 28. The team takes home the top prize of $100,000 and advances to the national competition. The April 28 award ceremony was the culmination of the two-day MIT Clean Energy Prize, which featured 19 semi-finalists competing in renewable energy, infrastructure and resources, and energy efficiency categories. Six finalists were selected to advance to the final event, where teams pitched a wide range of technologies, including high efficiency wood stoves, microgrid applications, and nano particles that reduce friction and reverse wear. Unified Solar swept the round, winning the $100,000 Energy Department prize as well as $125,000 from competition sponsor NSTAR. Unified Solar developed an integrated circuit solution for maximum power point tracking at cell-level granularity, reducing energy loss for solar panels. Solar panel systems with central inverters suffer from the “Christmas tree” or “weakest link” effect—when a shaded or dirty panel reduces the output of every other panel on a string. Panels using Unified Solar’s technology effectively behave as a single “super-cell,” which solves the weakest-link challenge. Unified Solar claims its technology doubles the average energy capture for less than a third of the price of current solutions. For the complete story, see the EERE Blog. |
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