With the upcoming presidential elections right around the corner, companies across the country, as well as the citizens themselves are wondering who will fill Obama’s seat, and how they’ll use their power in an attempt to shift policies across all federal departments. A large focus is on power generation, climate change, energy independence and strategies to build a stable and reliable electric grid. This includes reallocation of tax dollars, feed-in-tariff incentives, and the market share of American manufacturers and service providers across the global energy space. Despite all of the political rhetoric being flung back and forth between candidates, Ernest Moniz is using his time as Secretary of Energy to fund projects that his department feels will have a lasting, positive impact on American energy infrastructure and those who consume its power.
Earlier this month, approximately US$7million was made available to indigenous communities and Alaskan native tribes to strengthen the network of technical assistance for the regions’ energy providers. The United States Department of Energy’s laboratories will be the ones conducting the multi-week training exercises for a select few. Officials are hoping that with an increased awareness of renewable power generation systems, the Alaskan communities can begin to move away from the costly diesel generation that is so widely used across the state, as well as stabilizing transmission systems in remote areas. According to their press release, the D.O.E. has said that US$15million has been invested in over 200 tribal projects across Alaska over the last 14 years. A stronger, cleaner grid would mean less expense in transporting traditional energy like fossil fuels, across the country’s largest state, as well as minimizing their carbon footprint.
A few weeks later, the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories kicked off what they hope will incentivize domestic production of advanced technologies within the clean energy sector. The $40million backed Energy Materials Network program is allocating resources to be disseminated to a number of laboratories across the country. According to a recent press release by the D.O.E., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and Ames Laboratory were three of the fund’s recipients listed by the Energy Department. The resources will be used to further investigate the creation, application, and efficiency of materials necessary to advance clean energy production across the map. The research and development budget for the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of PV cells that’s been requested by the Energy Materials Network for 2017 is nearly triple the figure for 2016.
Source: Energy Acuity
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