Energy Department Launches Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative

Last week, the Energy Department launched the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI), a new effort focused on growing American manufacturing of clean energy products and boosting U.S. manufacturing competitiveness through major improvements in energy productivity.
The CEMI’s investments include the recently announced SunShot Solar Manufacturing Technology (SolarMat) program, a $15 million funding opportunity to reduce the manufacturing costs of solar energy technologies and demonstrate cost-competitive, innovative manufacturing technologies that can achieve commercial production in the next few years.

Read more….http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/solar/newsletter/detail.cfm/articleId=362

Priorities of Science Committee Republicans on DOE Science, NASA, NIST, NOAA, and NSF

A good indicator of the views of House Science Committee Republicans on the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, NASA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Science Foundation can be found in a eight-page document submitted to the House Budget Committee. “Views and Estimates; Committee on Science, Space and Technology; Fiscal Year 2014” provides insight into the positions of twenty of the twenty-one committee Republicans on these agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Transportation.

Read more…..http://www.aip.org/fyi/2013/056.html

Building Support for the DOE Office of Science

Constituents interested in building support for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science have the opportunity to contact their representative to sign a letter to key House appropriators. The deadline for signatures on this letter is April 10.

Read more….http://www.aip.org/fyi/2013/055.html

Obama Seeks to Use Oil and Gas Money to Develop Alternative Fuel Cars

ARGONNE, Ill. — Warning that the United States risks falling behind in the international race to develop alternative energy, President Obama on Friday proposed diverting $2 billion in revenue from federal oil and gas royalties over the next decade to pay for research on advanced vehicles.

Mr. Obama toured a vehicle research facility at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago and then spoke to employees about his plan, first proposed in his State of the Union address last month, to use oil and gas money to find ways to replace hydrocarbons as the primary fuel for cars, trucks and buses.

The president said the nation was experiencing one of its regular spikes in gasoline prices, in effect a tax on every American household.

Read entire article here.

Students Develop Innovative Solutions for Energy Efficient Buildings

Every year, the U.S. spends about $200 billion to power our office buildings, shopping mall and stores. Yet, about 30 percent of this money is wasted. Hoping to tap the creative thinking of the nation’s university students, the Energy Department launched the Better Buildings Case Competition. Last week as part of the second annual competition, some of the country’s brightest young minds presented their ideas on ways to cut energy waste and improve commercial building efficiency.

This year, 14 university teams — made up of undergraduate and graduate students with backgrounds in business, engineering, public policy and urban planning — tackled four of the toughest knots in energy efficiency. Using real-world scenarios and data, students had two months to develop innovative solutions for common efficiency challenges — from creating a plan for early retirement of equipment to justifying and installing metering to designing financial models that municipalities can use to improve their own buildings — that real-world private-sector organizations, and state and local governments could replicate.

Read entire article here.