U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Monday announced the creation of a program to transfer clean-energy technologies to developing countries at the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.
Called the Renewables and Efficiency Deployment Initiative (Climate REDI), the goal is to promote the use of efficient and renewable energy products to cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve the quality of life in poor countries, according to the DOE.
Climate REDI will be coordinated with existing technology transfer programs and organizations. Total spending will be $350 million over five years with the U.S. funding $100 million.
Click on image to see photo gallery of low-cost lighting technologies.
The three areas that the U.S. portion will fund will be:
• Combination solar panels and LED lights, which can be used as an alternative to polluting and unhealthy kerosene lamps.
• Incentive programs in the so-called Major Economies Forum to make more efficient appliances commercially available.
• Technical and policy support for low-income countries establishing renewable energy strategies.
The details of the green technology transfer program, part of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, come the same day that delegates from developing countries withdrew participation from negations, although talks were expected to resume later.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt (left) and U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu at Google headquarters Monday.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--For a bunch of search engineers, Google employees care an awful lot about energy and the environment.
Google hosted an event for employees Monday featuring Steven Chu, the U.S. secretary of energy under President Obama and a man Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said "may become one of the most influential scientists of our generation, if he isn't already." Chu took about an hour to speak to a packed room of Google employees following his announcement of $151 million in funding for new energy-related projects as part of the ARPA-E program.
Chu found a friendly audience of some of the most science-and-technology-obsessed individuals in a region known for science and technology obsession. He called the need to invest in alternative fuels and energy systems "the engineering and science challenge of our time" that will demand contributions from young scientists and technologists like the ones in Mountain View.
Several employees asked Chu to opine on the viability of various alternatives to fossil fuels, such as nuclear and geothermal, and the need to reduce carbon through a cap-and-trade system and carbon sequestration. Here Chu jostled a bit with Schmidt, who said he is skeptical about cap-and-trade systems and the ability of the nuclear industry to solve thorny problems like waste disposal and safety.
Congress is considering cap-and-trade legislation at the moment, and Chu is scheduled to testify before Congress on Tuesday about the need for such legislation. Schmidt isn't sure a global system can work because of the tendency for "rogue nations" to do as they please, but Chu thinks if carbon measurement systems are improved, hard data will make it easier to encourage those who are overproducing carbon to get their act together.
And on nuclear, Schmidt bemoaned the lack of standards in nuclear plant construction, saying "the human factors are a disaster" with every plant a little different than its counterparts and the waste issue still unsolved. Chu didn't debate the point, but said the nuclear industry is moving more toward solving those problems and improving safety.
Those were minor policy disagreements, however: Google and the current Department of Energy are definitely friends. Schmidt called Chu one of his heroes, and Chu praised Google's work on reducing the energy consumption of its servers and assuming a "leadership position" in reducing the carbon footprint of its operation.
Schmidt, who serves as an adviser to the administration on President Obama's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, asked Chu what it's like being the senior scientist in the government. He's actually the first scientist to hold the secretary of energy position, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997.
"It's funny in a macabre sort of way. I don't think Congress treats me like your average cabinet member," Chu said with a wry chuckle. He said he's spent much of his first year on the job talking to Congress about the problems with energy use and the environment, and that legislators are receptive, for the most part.
"I think the president has made it very clear that science plays such an integral role in the decisions we have to make," Chu said. He was preaching to the choir at the Googleplex.
The Department of Energy on Monday named the first winners of a program aimed at generating breakthroughs in clean-energy technologies.
The program, called Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), began taking applications earlier this year for research ideas that reduce imports of foreign fuel, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and improve energy efficiency. Funding for the agency is part of the Obama administration's goal to improve the economic competitiveness of the U.S. by investing in energy technology.
The DOE is awarding $151 million in 37 grants to both academics and green-tech companies, most of which are start-ups. The ideas are meant to be high-risk and high-reward, with a number not expected to meet their goals.
Authority to create the agency, roughly modeled on the DARPA defense program that spawned the space race, happened in 2007 but it wasn't funded until earlier this year. ARPA-E now has authority to fund as much as $400 million in research. A second tranche of grant awardees is scheduled to be announced later this fall.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)The naming of ARPA-E grants is being closed watched in the green-tech start-up community and among researchers. There were 3,600 concept papers submitted, followed by 300 full applications and ultimately 37 awardees.
One awardee is an effort at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to make an all-liquid battery, which would make storage of storage of solar and wind power more cost effective.
Another is funding for a bioreactor developed by the University of Minnesota that proposes using two microorganisms to make a vehicle fuel. One bacteria would convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into a sugar, and another would convert the sugar into a fuel.
Two other efforts include developing enzymes that would more effectively capture carbon dioxide from power plants and a low-cost material for making LED lighting. The full list of awardees is at the ARPA-E site (click for PDF).
Energy Secretary Steven Chu is scheduled to speak at Google Monday morning in Google to make an announcement, after which Google CEO Eric Schmidt will speak with Chu. Through its philanthropic arm Google.org, Google has invested in a number of renewable energy companies. It has also developed Web-based energy monitoring software for consumers.
WASHINGTON--Energy Secretary Steven Chu is an accomplished scientist, but he's apparently happy to use low-tech home energy-efficiency tricks, too.
Chu was one of the featured speakers at the opening ceremony of the Solar Decathlon, a
Enenergy Secretary Steven Chu speaks at the opening ceremony of the Solar Decathlon contest on the National Mall on Thursday.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)At the ceremony, Chu announced $87 million worth of Department of Energy funding in solar energy, including training for installers and studies on the use of solar in urban areas and the impact on the grid of large amounts of solar electricity.
One of the continuing barriers to solar adoption is that solar-generated electricity is costs more than getting electricity from coal or natural gas before government subsidies. Chu said that prices are falling steadily but more costs need to be wrung out, particularly the cost of installation. Solar electricity for commercial buildings is now about $4 a watt installed and more for residential buildings but once the cost drops below $2 a watt, "magic will happen," Chu said.
Although the focus of the Solar Decathlon is clearly solar energy, Chu noted that energy efficiency is a core goal of the competition.
When he was director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab researchers concluded that adopting existing technologies--excluding solar--and inventing more would allow new buildings to be 75 percent more efficient than current practices. About 40 percent of the energy in the U.S. goes to buildings, which is about the same percentage around the world, Chu said.
He said that in nearly all the many homes he has lived in, making the houses more energy efficient "became a little hobby of mine." Chu and his wife used to ask to see the energy bills of the previous homeowners and made a game of trying to reduce the bills by 50 percent. Most of the changes are simple and cost hundreds, not thousands of dollars, he said.
"I started doing this long before I knew about climate change. And I have to confess the only reason I was doing that is because I'm fundamentally cheap," he joked.
Chu, who visited the California House on Wednesday and the Cornell University House on Thursday, said some of the things on display are likely to deployed while others probably won't be. "Mostly what you see are young, bright, dedicated people, totally caught up with idea that yes, we can make wonderful homes that eventually will be cost effective," he said.
The homes that are on the National Mall are expensive, with many costing in the neighborhood of $500,000. But they were designed to be transported and many generate more electricity and hot water than they need.
Improvements in building design and technology are making net zero energy homes for new construction feasible. Earlier this week, the Obama administration issued an executive order (PDF) that all new federal buildings built by 2030 needed to be net energy zero.
After Chu spoke, a DOE official announced that there will be the first Solar Decathlon outside the U.S. will be held in June 2010 in Madrid, Spain.
A sampling of green-tech news with quick commentary.
- Q & A: Steven Chu - Technology Review
Energy Secretary Steven Chu talks about coming up with a new nuclear-power and waste management strategy and why hydrogen vehicles have four strikes against them. - Waxman predicts committee passage as details emerge on climate, energy bill - GreenWire
A House energy and climate bill makes progress through compromises, although it's not a done deal. Latest draft lowers carbon emissions targets and renewable electricity mandate while devising a system for dealing with emissions allowances. - Husk Insulation Wins $200,000 MIT Clean Energy Prize: Building Better Refrigerators from Rice Husks - Xconomy
The hottest green technologies popping out of universities these days are insulation from rice husks and energy-harvesting shock absorbers. - Semiconductor Technology: The Potential to Revolutionize U.S. Energy Productivity - Press Release
Yes, electronics consume huge amounts of juice but an energy-efficiency advocacy group argues that semiconductors are essential to efficiency gains. - PG&E and BrightSource Sign Record Solar Power Deal - Press release
Pacific Gas & Electric re-ups its purchase of solar thermal systems which will produce 1.3 gigawatts of electricity. - Greentech's Top Ten Acquisition Targets - Greentech Media
Semi-educated guesses on which green-tech companies could be gobbled up by larger brethren.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu speaking at MIT on Tuesday
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the Department of Energy plans to establish research centers modeled on Bell Laboratories to spark the development of disruptive energy inventions.
Chu delivered the Compton lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Tuesday, where he told academics and local green-tech business people that the world needs technology breakthroughs in energy to hedge against high fossil fuel prices, to improve national security, and to mitigate the effects of climate change.
During his talk, Chu singled out a number of energy technologies that demand more research, including batteries, solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity, bio-energy, and capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground. Buildings equipped with sensors and better building material, for example, could be 80 percent more efficient, and synthetic biology could coax microbes into producing gasoline from plants, Chu said.
Energy secretary Steven Chu delivering the Compton lecture on research at MIT.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)By pursuing these low-carbon technologies, researchers will undoubtedly invent technologies that will lead to different applications, much the way the development of the transistor for communications at AT&T's Bell Labs led to the computer revolution, Chu said.
"There's going to be very exciting science that will come out of this. And just like Bell Labs, where you wanted to deliver some goods in the end, but boy there is going to be a lot of very fundamental stuff you have to develop along the way," he said. "So you can have a Nobel prize and save the world at the same time."
The Energy Department's budget will balloon in the near future, with $37 billion from the federal recovery act coming in the next two years, on top of its existing $26 billion budget. There will be money dedicated to basic research, but Chu said that he intends to promote applied energy research as well with the creation of eight "innovation hubs."
These hubs will be modeled on three existing bio-energy research centers, but expanded to include centers for batteries, building science and other areas, Chu said. His 2010 budget calls for $280 million to create these hubs.
The three centers have adopted a Bell Labs-like structure where people work on different areas and there is meant to be collaboration with industry as well, he said. At Bell Labs in the past, managers were top-notch scientists which helped the lab to make decisions quickly and develop many basic technologies, such as the photovoltaic solar cell and the laser, Chu said.
"A lot of the best research started as mission-oriented, applied research," he said. "Even when they worked on commercial applications, the research led to other inventions."
Basic versus applied research
In response to a question from a student, Chu said that the DOE does not at all intend to shy away from basic science research. President Obama in March called for doubling the amount of spending on basic science over the next 10 years to address the need for new energy technology and spur economic development. The Energy Department has also created DARPA-E, an agency modeled after the defense agency that led to the creation of the Internet.
But the amount of money that the U.S. spends on R&D is tiny in relation to the trillion dollars spent on energy every year, Chu said.
"Energy of the future will certainly have to be more high-tech, so in a high-tech industry what you typically do is invest on the order of 10 percent or more of sales in R&D," he said. "Well, 10 percent of a trillion dollars is $100 billion a year. That's a lot of money and we're really investing a couple billion, so the scale is not proportional to what is needed."
A slide from Steven Chu's speech on research at MIT.
(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)That influx of money to the Energy Department, for both research grants and loans to companies seeking to bring new technologies to market, has people concerned in industry that the money will not be well spent.
Chu acknowledged that this is a serious challenge for the Energy Department. In an effort to streamline the bureaucracy, he has made some organizational changes including a board established to efficiently vet loan and grant applications.
In addition, Chu said that in the coming weeks he will be sending letters to university teachers and students asking for their help in assessing the merits of research applications.
"This is a huge load on the system and we need the best help we can get," he said. "The quality of reviews has to go up. It's very important we get it right."
Earlier on Tuesday, Chu held a press conference in Boston to announce the award of $25 million to a research center for testing wind turbine blades in Charlestown, Mass.
Economic growth
Chu started his talk reviewing the latest data on the effects of climate change, which is happening as fast as--or even faster than--scientists have predicted.
Polar ice cap coverage is decreasing and the rate of sea level rise has accelerated over the last two decades. In British Columbia, 2006 data showed that 40 percent of pine forests were killed by pine bark beetles, fewer of which are killed by winter frosts because of warming temperatures.
In addition, there is growing awareness of potential tipping points, such as the release of methane from permafrost in the tundra. "We're getting close to where it's a very nervous time," he said.
But Chu is hopeful that the world can move to sustainable energy because of the breakthroughs scientists have achieved in the past. The so-called green revolution allowed people in the middle of the 20th century to get more food from the same amount of land.
He said he is a strong believer that investments in science and technology are also the best way to spur economic growth.
"I'm a big believer in the fact that science and technology will be a cornerstone, if not the cornerstone, for how America will prosper in this century, so what we're investing now is nothing," he said.
The Department of Energy's proposed budget boosts research on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources but makes cuts in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles because the technology is many years from being practical.
The DOE published details of its $26.4 billion fiscal 2010 budget request on Thursday, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu held a news briefing to cover the highlights. (Click for a PDF of his presentation.)
"We asked ourselves, 'Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will convert to a hydrogen car economy?' The answer, we felt, was 'no,'" Chu said in a briefing, according to Energy & Environment Daily.
Fuel cells have been touted by politicians and people from the industry for many years. The major auto companies have hydrogen fuel cell development programs and lease a limited number of cars to people near the few hydrogen filling stations in the U.S.
But there are many technical challenges to making fuel cell vehicles broadly used, including compact storage, the distribution infrastructure, and the longevity of fuel cells.
The DOE will continue to fund research for stationary fuel cell applications, such as backup power on the power grid or at commercial facilities. Hydrogen can be captured from natural gas or other sources. A fuel cell makes electricity, generating only water vapor as a byproduct--what's considered zero emissions.
The National Hydrogen Association criticized the DOE funding decision, saying that there should be a range of different vehicle technologies.
Another funding area expected to be cut is the $200 million spent on deep-water oil and gas research, which Chu said that industry could fund on its own.
Chu also said that the DOE will seek to create eight "innovation hubs," which would be small research areas designed to attract more scientists into energy, according to a report in The New York Times.
Other proposed areas of investments are: electricity transmission infrastructure, plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles, nuclear energy, and so-called clean coal technologies to make coal power generation less polluting.
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu plans to dispense tens of billions of dollars in loans in the next year in an effort to stimulate the economy and shortcut bureaucracy at the Department of Energy.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Chu said that the goal is to spend about half of the roughly $37 billion set aside for clean-energy projects in the coming year.
The clean-energy provisions are a central piece of the government stimulus package, which was passed by the House earlier this week. The Senate late Friday reached an agreement on the spending bill so that it could be voted on early next week.
Steven Chu at his former lab at Stanford University.
(Credit: Stanford University)Existing energy legislation from 2005 set aside loans and grants for energy and auto companies but no money has been dispensed because of a slow approval process, Chu said.
"This is the pace we expect, not three years, but five months." We've got to do this and we've got to do it in a way that has not been done at the Department of Energy," he said.
The amount of money available for clean-energy related projects is actually larger than the $25 billion annual budget of the Department of Energy whose mission is largely tied to protecting the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal.
An analysis by climate change business consulting firm ICT International, which was commissioned by Greenpeace, found that early versions of the stimulus bill had set aside over $50 billion for clean-energy measure, such as smart grid technologies and auto battery research. The American Association for the Advancement of Science put the number at about $37 billion, according to the Journal.
"The synopsis of the loans I've seen in innovative green energy -- they're in the hundred-million dollar range. They're in big hunks of money," Chu said.
The provisions are a mix of direct spending or loan guarantees, which have emerged as a vital source of capital for new energy technologies companies because of the credit crisis.
A number of clean-tech companies are seeking loans from the DOE in order to build manufacturing facilities, which are difficult to get financed as banks have become more conservative or unwilling to lend. Well known clean-tech companies, including Tesla Motors and battery company A123 Systems, have applied for existing loans but haven't received money.
Chu said that less technology-oriented Department of Energy projects could be quickly dispensed through states, including roughly $6 billion set aside to weatherize homes and municipal buildings to be more energy efficient.
"The secretary is committed to streamlining the process and eliminating unnecessary paperwork so that we can make these important investments that create jobs as quickly as possible," Energy Department spokesman Dan Leistikow told Reuters.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times earlier this week, Chu spoke about the potentially severe economic and environmental impact from climate change, particularly in California.
"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he told the newspaper. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California." And, he added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going."
WASHINGTON--Energy Secretary nominee Steven Chu was greeted with warm approval from a congressional committee during his confirmation hearing Tuesday, at which he acknowledged the need to pursue nuclear and clean-coal energy but promoted energy efficiency as the best means of addressing the nation's energy challenges in the face of a dour economy.
"I feel very strongly what the American family does not want is to pay an increasing fraction of their budget on energy costs," Chu said before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "That we do the best we can on energy efficiency--that, in my mind, remains the lowest hanging fruit."
Nobel-prize winning physicist Steven Chu, Obama's pick to be the next energy secretary, appeared before a congressional committee Tuesday.
(Credit: Stanford University)Working toward producing more efficient cars and tightly sealed homes will bring down energy consumption and costs, he said.
Committee Chair Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said Chu would be heading up the Energy Department at a "pivotal time in the department's history," noting that tens of billions of dollars in the upcoming stimulus package are likely to be devoted to energy programs.
He said that he would like the committee to vote on Chu's nomination later this week so the Nobel Prize-winning physicist could be confirmed as Energy Secretary by the entire senate on January 20, when President-elect Barack Obama takes office.
Chu would take responsibility of an increasingly important energy program at a time when funding will be sparse. Bingaman noted the lack of funding for a loan guarantee program set up by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Chu said that he would be able to manage the department efficiently. Since becoming director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2004, he has been primarily known as a scientist, he said, but "I spent three quarters of my time paying attention to the operation side of the house."
Part of the Energy Department's $25 billion budget should go toward accelerating the development of consumer-friendly batteries for electric hybrid cars, Chu said.
"These first electric hybrid cars don't have the energy capacity and the battery lifetime we need," he said. "Let's push hard towards more fuel-efficient personal vehicles."
While the senators present endorsed Chu's enthusiasm for developing new energy technologies, many emphasized the need to put funds toward readily available energy sources like nuclear power.
"Isn't it important we accelerate this proven source of clean energy?" Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Al.) asked with respect to nuclear power.
"I'm supportive of the fact that the nuclear industry should be part of the mix," Chu said.
He said federal loan guarantee programs should be used to jump-start the nuclear industry while the nation develops a long-term plan for safe disposal of waste and researches ways to recycle waste in an economically viable and safe manner.
"The recycling issue is something we don't need a solution for today, or even 10 years from today," Chu said. "It's like coal--one doesn't have a hard moratorium on that while we search for ways to capture carbon safely."
Chu said the United States, India, China, and Russia will not turn their backs to coal, so it is critical to find ways to use it as cleanly as possible, a sentiment many senators agreed with.
"All of us understand we need to use coal differently in the future," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). "But I don't think anybody believes we're not going to use our most abundant resource."
Chu said the United States has an opportunity to develop clean-coal technologies for the rest of the world to use, and "if confirmed, I will work very hard to extensively develop these."
President-elect Barack Obama on Monday formally announced the top members of his energy and environment team and pledged to move aggressively on energy security and climate change.
As expected, Obama nominated Nobel Prize-winning scientist Steven Chu, now the head of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as secretary of energy at a press conference in Chicago.
Lisa P. Jackson, the head of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, is Obama's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Nancy Sutley, the deputy mayor for energy and environment for Los Angeles, was picked as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Nobel-prize winning physicist Steven Chu is said to have been nominated as the next energy secretary.
(Credit: Stanford University)And Obama named former EPA administrator Carol M. Browner to a new position--assistant to the president for energy and climate change--to coordinate energy and climate policies among different federal and state agencies.
The secretary of the interior, who will be the final member of the administration's energy and environment team, will be named later this week, Obama said.
Obama said the nominations reflect his goal to invest in energy technologies to both revitalize the economy and address climate change.
"One of the key points that I want to make at this press conference and I will repeat again and again during the course of my presidency is there is not a contradiction between economic growth and sound environmental practices," Obama said.
"I think that the future of innovation and technology is going to be what drives our economy into the future. And the energy economy is going to be part of what creates the millions of jobs we need," he said.
Obama added that his choice of Chu reflects his desire to have science as the basis of environmental and energy policy decisions. "We will make decisions based on facts, and we understand that the facts demand bold action," he said.
Chu said he intends to support research on sustainable energy technologies at the Department of Energy.
"We believe aggressive support of energy science, coupled with (commercial) incentives...can transform the entire landscape of energy supply," he said.
Challenges and reactions
In the week running up to Monday's announcement, Obama's reported choices were generally well received by clean technology business people and advocates.
However, Obama's energy and environmental team faces growing challenges in implementing broad changes.
The global economic crisis and falling oil prices have slowed green-tech activity, particularly for companies that require lots of capital to commercialize new technologies.
The European Union reached an agreement on carbon-emissions trading on Friday after intense lobbying from utilities and heavy-manufacturing industries. The greenhouse gas reduction targets remain in place, but heavy polluters have more leeway in how they meet those targets, according to reports.
As this Associated Press article points out, scientists say that the task of curbing greenhouse gas levels is more challenging today than it would have been several years ago.
On the political side, some observers doubt that investments in energy efficiency and clean technologies can create the millions of jobs Obama intends to create.
Finally, some have noted that Chu, although a renowned scientist, could run into difficulties navigating the politics of Washington.
Energy guru and efficiency advocate Amory Lovins, the founder and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute, urged Chu to separate nuclear weapons responsibilities from the DOE and to create an assistant secretary devoted to energy efficiency.
"Be bold," Lovins said in a statement. "This is our last and best chance to get energy right. We know how; we just need to go do it."
