Obama Administration Announces $85 Million in ARRA Funding for Early Career Scientists’ Research

Posted on July 17, 2009October 17, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC– U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced today that up to $85 million in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be awarded in early 2010 to support at least 50 early career researchers for five years at U.S. academic institutions and DOE national laboratories.

To be eligible for the competition, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory. The applicant must also have received a Ph.D. within the past ten years.

Each university award will be at least $150,000 per year for five years to support summer salary and other research expenses. For DOE national laboratories, awards will be at least $500,000 per year for five years to support year-round salary and expenses.

Early career researchers may apply to one of six Office of Science program offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research; Biological and Environmental Research; Basic Energy Sciences; Fusion Energy Sciences; High Energy Physics; or Nuclear Physics. Proposed research topics must fall within the programmatic priorities of DOE’s Office of Science, which are provided in the program announcements. Funding will be competitively awarded on the basis of peer review.

Letters of intent will be due on August 1, 2009, and proposals will be due on September 1, 2009.

DOE Announces up to $52.5 Million for Concentrating Solar Power Research and Development

Posted on July 15, 2009October 17, 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy today announced plans to provide up to $52.5 million to research, develop, and demonstrate Concentrating Solar Power systems capable of providing low-cost electrical power both day and night. Today’s announcement underscores the Obama Administration’s commitment to creating jobs and saving money, making electricity generated from solar energy competitive with conventional grid electricity.

“Low-cost renewable energy generation that includes energy storage is one key to our efforts to diversify domestic energy sources and create new jobs,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. “By investing in the development of low-cost solar technologies we can pave the way toward faster deployment of carbon-free, large-scale energy sources.”

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies concentrate the sun’s energy and capture that energy as heat, which then drives an engine or turbine to produce electrical power. CSP plants can include low-cost energy storage, which allows them to provide electricity even when the sun is not shining. CSP technologies currently used in utility-scale power plants typically do not have the capability/capacity for storage, operating only during daytime hours. These projects will seek to improve technology and novel system designs to extend operation to an average of about 18 hours per day, a level of production that would make it possible for a CSP plant to displace a traditional coal power plant.

The competitive funding opportunity involves two areas:

Research and development of concepts and components for a CSP system that enables a plant to produce low-cost electricity at least 18 hours of the day.
Evaluation of the feasibility and development of a prototype complete CSP system capable of operating at least 18 hours per day while generating low-cost power.

Projects are based upon continuing annual appropriations. DOE anticipates making up to 13 project awards totaling up to $52.5 million.

Learn more about US Department of Energy grant opportunities.

FY10 Energy Appropriations Advance

Posted on July 10, 2009October 17, 2012

Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have approved FY10 funding for the Department of Energy. As previously mentioned on this site, the House provided $880,000 for the UW-OSU Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center, as well as $1,000,000 for the UW Washington State Biofuels project. Although the Senate did not provide similar figures, the Office of Federal Relations is actively working with the offices of Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell to make certain that UW project funding is — at a minimum — maintained this fall when the Energy and Water Appropriations bill goes to conference and is finalized.

The House Appropriations Committee was able to provide the Department of Energy Office of Science funding of $4.9 billion, the same as the President’s budget request and an increase of $171 million over last year. The Administration’s new initiatives, the Energy Innovation Hubs and the Re-ENERGYSE energy education program, received partial funding by the House Committee. In the Senate, the Appropriations Committee cleared their bill yesterday and provided a similar increase for the DOE Office of Science. They provided funding for three Innovation Hubs but did not fund the Re-ENERGYSE program.

In terms of the comprehensive energy and climate authorization bills, the House passed its bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (HR 2454), in late June. House Leadership made agreements for votes up until the end, reaching a final vote of 219 to 212. The most important R&D provisions in HR 2454 are the 1.5 percent of the climate mitigation credit allowances that were allotted for research and development and related activities. The House bill has been sent to the Senate for consideration, with most of the interested Senate committees with scheduled to hold hearings this month and mark up in early September. Senate Leadership has asked that all Committee markups be completed by September 28.

Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Summary

House Energy and Water Appropriations Summary

Secretary Chu Delivers Testimony on Need for Comprehensive Clean Energy Legislation

Posted on July 7, 2009October 17, 2012

As many are aware, prior to the July 4th Congressional recess, the House of Representatives passed a comprehensive clear energy bill. Consideration of clean energy legislation now rests in the Senate, where it is expected that a bill of some sort will emerge before the August Congressional recess. Today, Secretary Chu delivered the following testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Statement of Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy Before the Committee on Environment and Public Works, United States Senate, Washington, D.C.

July 7, 2009

Chairman Boxer, Ranking Member Inhofe, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on moving America toward a clean energy economy.

We face many serious and immediate challenges. American families and businesses are struggling in a recession and an increasingly competitive global economy. We have become deeply dependent on a single energy source to power our cars, trucks and airplanes, and spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year to import nearly 60 percent of the oil we use. We face an unprecedented threat to our very way of life from climate change.

To solve these challenges, the Administration and Congress need to work together to spur a revolution in clean energy technologies. The President and I applauded the historic action by the House to pass a clean energy bill, and we look forward to working with the Senate to pass comprehensive energy legislation. Continue reading “Secretary Chu Delivers Testimony on Need for Comprehensive Clean Energy Legislation”

DoE Announces New Grant Program for Young Faculty

Posted on July 7, 2009October 17, 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy has released a new grant solicitation focused on providing support for early-career investigators. The program is the result of a AAAS report entitled Advancing Research in Science Education recommendation, which states that two essential keys to scientific achievement in the U.S. are funding early-career scientists as well as high-risk high-impact research. DoE has addressed the latter with funding for its new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Both the new grant program outlined below and ARPA-E are funding through the Recovery Act.

Solicitation Description: The Office of Science of the Department of Energy hereby invites grant applications for support under the Early Career Research Program in the following program areas: Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); Biological and Environmental Research (BER); Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); High Energy Physics (HEP), and Nuclear Physics (NP). The purpose of this program is to support the development of individual research programs of outstanding scientists early in their careers and to stimulate research careers in the areas supported by the DOE Office of Science.

Letter of Intent Due Date: 08/03/2009 by 04:30 PM Eastern Time
Application Due Date: 09/01/2009

Full DoE Grant Announcement