DOE announced a plan to roll out a series of goals to accelerate breakthroughs of more clean energy solutions this week.
Zoom out: This is the first goal in DOE’s new “Energy Earthshots” series and aims to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% from $5 to $1/kg over the next decade.
Rewind: The strategy builds on successful programs launched at DOE during the last administration — the Energy Storage Grand Challenge and the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.
What’s clear: There was a shift at DOE during the last Administration towards goal-oriented investments to help scale up clean energy innovation.
2. Gulf Coast preps two big carbon capture plans
Momentum continued to build behind two key Gulf Coast developments this week:
A new Texas law cleared the way for the state to apply for primacy over the Environmental Protection Agency’s Class VI well program — wells used for the injection of carbon dioxide into deep rock formations for long-term sequestration.
A joint venture from Talos Energy and Storegga Geotechnologies Limited will evaluate and develop carbon capture and sequestration along the Gulf Coast — one of the first projects being pursued offshore.
What’s clear: The Gulf Coast is a prime location for carbon capture and storage opportunities due to the high number of emitters and vast storage potential offshore.
Negotiations hit a snag this week as President Biden ended talks with Senate Republicans over their desire to keep the 2017 tax cuts intact.
The path ahead appears partisan:
Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the lead Republican negotiator, expressed disappointment while committing to bipartisan solutions.
Dems, meanwhile, said the GOP offer didn’t go far enough on climate change — even though Congress passed the most sweeping climate legislation in over a decade, with the Energy Act of 2020.
But there’s still hope for bipartisanship. The House Problem Solvers Caucus this week introduced a $1.25 trillion, bipartisan infrastructure framework hewing “closer to Biden’s baseline,” Roll Call reports.
10 Senators also announced a bipartisan “compromise framework” calling for $1.2 trillion over the next eight years.
4. The case for permitting reform
When infrastructure talks resume, making it easier to build new projects should remain a key priority.
What’s clear: Permits set the pace of our clean energy transition — either bogging down or unleashing the massive number of new projects analysts say we need, ASAP.
Rich’s take: The scale of construction this moment demands is enormous given our increasingly electrified country — and speed is key.
We’re talking tens of thousands of miles of new pipelines — both for clean fuels and captured CO2 — transmission wires, power plants, wind and solar farms, geothermal wells, nuclear plants, clean fossil fuel plants, and repowered hydro dams.
Next week, join The Aspen Institute for a first look at its next report, “Building Cleaner, Faster.”
Plug in: Hear Rich explain why we can only scale up clean energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions as fast as we can permit new projects in under 5 minutes.
5. You’re invited: The path to tapping fusion energy
Join Paul Dabbar, DOE’s former under secretary for science and a member of our advisory board, for a conversation on how to mobilize investments in what could be a world-changing clean energy source.
What’s clear: Innovative designs and scientific breakthroughs are bringing the bottomless well of fusion power closer and closer to reality.
Context: For decades, scientists have been trying to build a fusion generator to harness the reaction at the core of the sun.
Rewind: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, industry, and DOE have recently begun discussions on an appropriate regulatory pathway for commercial fusion.
The latest: The Fusion Industry Association is calling on fusion to be included as a part of any upcoming infrastructure legislation.
Plug in: Explore our Fusion 101 for a crash course in how it works, the field’s big developments, and what’s next.
6. ICYMI
We’re pushing the Senate to reintroduce and pass the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act, cosigning a letter from 24 industrial, nonprofit, and advocacy orgs.
Carbon capture, utilization, and storage continue to gain bipartisan support in Washington and interest from investors.
E4 Carolinas won $1.4 million from a Commerce Dept. nuclear research grant to boost the industry and its economic benefits throughout the Southeast.
Pumped hydro, America’s overlooked energy storage workhorse, is poised to get the credit — and added investment from Washington — it deserves, writes our own Alex Fitzsimmons.
End of an era… Developer TC Energy officially canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline project, months after President Biden revoked a key permit, drawing bipartisan backlash over the loss of jobs.
Coming down the pipeline
June 15 — Aspen Institute: Hear from a roundtable of policymakers, experts and practitioners for the “Building Cleaner, Faster” report release.
