Recent News and Funding Opportunities

DOE Hosts Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap Roundtable and Announces New Funding Opportunity

On September 7, Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm and White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy hosted a roundtable of diverse industry leaders along with stakeholders from government and academia to discuss opportunities to build a decarbonized industrial sector that benefits workers, communities, and all Americans.

During the event, Secretary Granholm announced the release of DOE’s “Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap.” This comprehensive new report identifies four key pathways to reduce industrial emissions across our nation’s most energy-intensive sectors. The roadmap emphasizes the urgency of dramatically cutting carbon emissions from the industrial sector, and presents a staged research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) agenda for industry and government.

Secretary Granholm also announced a $104 million DOE funding opportunity to advance industrial decarbonization technologies. The “Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization FOA” incorporates the topics and recommendations identified in the roadmap, applying the four industrial decarbonization pathways to energy-intensive industries where decarbonization technologies could have the greatest impact.

Watch the roundtable.

EERE Hiring: Senior-Level Director Positions

Have you heard? We're hiring two critical senior-level positions: The Director of the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Program and the Director of the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology Program. The Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization program supports innovation in technologies and the adoption of practices to enable the industrial sector to cost effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies program researches, develops and demonstrates next-generation materials and clean energy manufacturing technologies to increase U.S. industrial competitiveness and drive economy-wide decarbonization. Learn more about these and other open positions on our Careers Page.

Biden-Harris Administration Launches $675 Million Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Program to Expand Domestic Critical Materials Supply Chains

On August 9, 2022, The Biden-Harris Administration, through DOE, issued a request for information (RFI) on the development and implementation of a $675 million Critical Materials Research, Development, Demonstration, and Commercialization Program. Funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the program will address vulnerabilities and increase resilience in domestic critical materials supply chains to support the clean energy transition. Learn more about the RFI here and submit responses by September 9, 2022.

Integration of Onsite Clean Energy Technologies in the Industrial Sector

On August 17, 2022, DOE issued a request for information that seeks input on the Barriers and Pathways to Integrating Onsite Clean Energy Technologies in the Industrial Sector. These technologies include—but are not limited to—solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind power, renewable fuels, geothermal, battery storage, and thermal storage. Feedback is welcome from end-users of onsite systems, academia, research laboratories, state and local policymakers, utilities, regulators, government agencies, community-based organizations, and more. Read our announcement and submit your feedback by September 23, 2022.

Advanced Energy and Recycling Grants Program

On August 3, 2022, DOE announced a request for information seeking public input for a new $750 million Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program. The program will support small and medium-sized manufacturers to produce or recycle clean energy products or deploy cutting-edge greenhouse gas emissions reduction equipment at facilities in coal communities. Learn more about the program and submit your RFI responses by September 16, 2022.

DOE Announces Geothermal Manufacturing Prize Winners

On August 29, 2022, DOE announced the American-Made Geothermal Manufacturing prize winners. During the course of the prize, which launched in January 2020, teams competed in three progressive competitions to propose a solution, design it, and create a prototype. Each winning team will be awarded $500,000 in cash and up to $200,000 to test their innovations in the field. Read more about the award and winners here.

 

Highlights

DOE Hosted First-Ever Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program Summit

On July 12, DOE hosted the first-ever Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program Summit. The summit convened more than 300 clean-tech stakeholders from across the country, including investors, universities, industry, deep-tech accelerators/incubators, community leaders, and representatives from DOE, U.S. national labs, and other government agencies. Secretary Granholm and Kelly Speakes-Backman, former principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, kicked off the event with opening remarks highlighting the many accomplishments of the program to develop innovative solutions to address climate change. The summit also included pitches from more than 20 startups and program alumni in addition to a panel on inclusive innovation moderated by Shalanda Baker, director, DOE Office of Economic Impact and Diversity. Learn more about the summit.

AMO Water and Wastewater RD&D Workshop Report

AMO recently published a report from the December 2021 Water and Wastewater RD&D Workshop Series. The workshop series gathered about 200 attendees across all sectors: from academia, industry, and utilities, to municipalities, tribes, national laboratories, and government.

The attendees discussed three main topics: understanding challenges to achieve a modern, sustainable, resilient, and climate-adaptive water and wastewater treatment infrastructure; identifying analysis and RD&D needs; and expanding stakeholder and funding opportunity reach. For more on the opportunities and outcomes identified, read the report here.

Critical Materials Podcast Interview with AMO’s Helena Khazdozian

In August, technology manager Helena Khazdozian sat down with Kristin Hayes from Resource Radio to discuss the Critical Materials Institute, define what critical materials are, and highlight the importance of critical materials when looking toward the supply chain and future decarbonization efforts.

The interview also covers subtopics within the critical materials field, such as: the unique challenges critical materials create for supply chains, the role of rare earth elements, and opportunities to simultaneously reduce environmental emission and cost through innovation. To expand your own critical materials knowledge, listen here.

AMO Visual Guides Based on 2018 Manufacturing Energy and Carbon Footprints Available

Two visual guides to complement the 2018 Manufacturing Energy and Carbon Footprints analysis are available. See the U.S. Manufacturing Static Energy Sankey Diagrams and U.S. Manufacturing Static Carbon Sankey Diagrams to compare the flow of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions across manufacturing sectors. To learn more about key findings from the 2018 Footprints analysis, view part 1 and part 2 of a detailed article series on the AMO website.

2022 R&D 100 Award Winners

AMO is proud to have supported three winners and four finalists of the R&D 100 2022 Awards. These awards highlight the diverse portfolio of AMO including the development of ink for 2.5D lithium batteries, lithium-ion battery recycling, and an aluminum alloy designed to be more resilient than all other existing options. Read more about the fantastic awardees and projects here.

Referred to as the “Oscars of Innovation,” the R&D 100 Awards annually recognize 100 accomplishments in research leading to new commercial products, technologies and materials from around the world notable for their technological significance.

AMO Semiconductor R&D for Energy Efficiency Workshop Report

AMO has published a new report on increasing the energy efficiency of semiconductors that was developed after AMO’s “Manufacturing and Integration Challenges for Analog and Neuromorphic Computing” workshop last year. More than 180 leading scientific and technical experts attended the workshop to identify challenges and opportunities to improve manufacturing capabilities for analog and neuromorphic computing architectures to significantly increase energy efficiency of microelectronic devices.

Attendees explored four major topics: applications and impacts of analog and neuromorphic computing; analog hardware for communications; analog hardware for sensors; and neuromorphic architecture and devices. The findings from this workshop will help inform an AMO RDD&D plan to significantly reduce semiconductor energy use by 2030. Download and read the report.

 

Events

Register for AMO’s Semiconductor Roadmap Workshop Event on Sept. 14

Sign up to attend AMO’s Semiconductor Industry Energy Efficiency Scaling Goal Technical Workshop on September 14, 2022. The workshop will bring together technical experts in semiconductor R&D, design, and manufacturing to identify pathways to increase energy efficiency of microelectronics systems by at least 1,000x in the next 20 years. The workshop will also provide a venue to discuss the implications of the recent CHIPS and Science Act for government-industry partnerships. The information gathered during this workshop will be used to inform a comprehensive roadmap guiding RDD&D to improve energy efficiency of semiconductor devices. Learn more about the workshop and register to attend.

Join Us for Virtual Clean Energy Career Fairs!

This September, join the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for a weekly virtual career fair, the STEMtember Sessions: Careers in Clean Energy, a networking opportunity during which EERE team members will discuss their diverse roles in renewable power, sustainable transportation, energy efficiency, and business operations. You do not need a degree in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) to work in clean energy, so come with questions and get ready to learn about how you can help build a clean energy future as a Clean Energy Champion.

Register today:

Join the High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation Team for a Manufacturing Day Webinar

High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) pairs industrial partners with specialists at DOE national laboratories to work on projects that increase energy efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. On October 7, HPC4EI will host a special Manufacturing Day webinar to discuss current DOE priorities and initiatives that industry and the national laboratories can address to tackle the climate crisis. Webinar discussion topics include: decarbonization of industrial processes; research needs in the areas of carbon utilization and concentrated solar energy; and the issues around high hydrogen fuel mixtures for gas turbines or internal combustion engines. View the event agenda and register.