The Examiner published a story on October 28 highlighting House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s comments on how the caucus will be focused on climate policy and included quotes from Rich on clean energy innovation policy. Excerpts here:
“House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is promising his party will offer a proactive agenda to combat climate change to counter Democrats ahead of the 2020 election…
…McCarthy says House Republicans are planning to introduce a series of bills addressing climate change that follow conservative, free-market principles, while rejecting Democratic proposals such as the Green New Deal…
…A few conservative groups that favor major legislation to address climate change have provided McCarthy’s staff with polling showing Republicans risk losing young voters if they don’t address climate change, sources tell Josh…
…Congressional Republicans generally have focused their messaging on promoting private sector innovation, investing in R&D on emissions-reducing technologies such as carbon capture, and advanced nuclear energy. There are a number of bipartisan bills addressing those issues pending in both chambers of Congress…
“We are certainly encouraged by Leader McCarthy focusing on policy to affordably meet growing global demand for reliable and lower-carbon power, and to address climate change by developing a new generation of miracle technologies,” Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath Action, a conservative clean energy group, told Josh.”
VIDEO: A Future With High Demand For Long Duration Energy Storage
Energy storage is a key piece to solving the clean energy puzzle. Storage technologies benefit each portion of the grid from generation to transmission over long distances to distribution to homes and businesses.
We generally put energy storage into three main buckets:
Thermal energy – think heating and cooling
Chemical energy – mostly batteries
Mechanical or kinetic energy – that’s storage from movement or pressure, including pumped hydro
For context, pumped hydro is almost all of grid-scale energy storage today. One company worth keeping an eye on, Quidnet Energy, is using a technology called geomechnical pumped storage (GPS). Check out our latest video explaining this breakthrough energy storage technology.
RICH’S TAKE
“Our electricity grid is complex – it must balance receiving and discharging electricity in real time, all while maintaining its current. Unlike virtually any other product in our economy, up to this point, there’s been little we could do to store electricity – imagine if refrigerators didn’t exist today in the dairy supply chain, for example, and we still had to use milk within hours of when we milked the cows. Energy storage can change this, and become a cornerstone for the grid – allowing us to save electricity for times when electricity is expensive or demand is high. It can also help in balancing and maintaining the grid.”
In the Hearing Room This Week
On October 29 and 30, The House Financial Services Committee debated reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, including several amendments that would restrict EXIM financing from being used for certain clean energy projects overseas.
On October 30, Energy and Commerce held a hearing on the 100×50 plan and the power sector. Click here to watch the hearing and to read the testimony.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Forbes: MIT Engineers Develop Battery That Can Remove Carbon Dioxide From Air
Forbes published a column on new battery technology that removes carbon dioxide from air that could be developed to a commercial scale in rolls similar to industrial paper. Excerpts here:
“A pair of MIT engineers just created a new way to efficiently remove carbon dioxide from the air. The system can be developed commercially at low cost and has a myriad of potential applications.
“While there are alternative ways to remove carbon dioxide from gas, they typically only work well on carbon dioxide levels significantly higher than atmospheric concentrations and require lengthy chemical processes to ultimately remove the carbon dioxide.
“This approach uses a unique battery that can absorb carbon dioxide while it is charging up and release pure carbon dioxide when the battery is discharged.”
Morning Consult: Oklo Demonstrates Fuel Prototypes at Idaho National Laboratory
Morning Consult wrote about Oklo’s breakthrough small modular reactor technology. Excerpts here:
“The developer of a miniature nuclear reactor said it has successfully demonstrated prototypes of its metallic fuel — a key development for the company and for the U.S. advanced nuclear reactor community, whose years-long timelines to deployment often beget sporadic messaging wins.
Oklo Inc. fabricated fuel prototypes with the Idaho National Laboratory, with multiple prototype fuel elements reaching production specification, for anticipated use in its 1-2 megawatt-electric compact fast reactor, which is intended to generate both process heat and electricity.
The demonstration is “one of the bigger steps on the pathway for us moving towards ultimately submitting a license application and trying our first reactor on,” said Jacob DeWitte, chief executive of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, in an interview ahead of the announcement. The fuel prototype demonstration “ramps well into our plans” to build a commercial unit in the early 2020s, he said.”
Atlantic Council: The Value of the US Nuclear Power Complex to US National Security
The Atlantic Council recently released an issue brief, “The Value of the US Nuclear Power Complex to US National Security” highlighting how the civilian nuclear industry significantly supports national security needs and how the civilian and military nuclear sectors are intertwined. They hosted an accompanying roundtable this week on this civilian-military nexus and the role of innovation in nuclear energy.
A few key highlights include:
The nuclear power complex contributes an equivalent of $42.4 billion to U.S. national security, comprised of $26.1 billion in human capital, $2.9 billion in baseload and supply chain values, and $13.4 billion in avoided emissions.
This $42.4 billion figure excludes the contribution of the nuclear industry to federal and state taxes ($10 billion and $2.2 billion respectively) and the trade balance from export of nuclear fuel ($916 million) and technology ($949 million).
Nuclear innovation offers a path for American global leadership, and the existing civilian-military nexus can play a valuable role in the commercialization of such innovation.
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ClearPath is hiring!
The Office Manager will support the entire ClearPath team, helping with event planning, property management, and general office administration. We are looking for someone with 3-5 years of project management experience. Click here to read more about this job
THE PATH AHEAD
November 5: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy is hosting an “Up & Atom” morning briefing with Dr. Paul Kearns, Argonne National Laboratory Director at 8:30 am in the Rayburn House Office Building. Register here
November 6: R Street is hosting a lunch briefing “Understanding Carbon-Neutral and Carbon-Negative Technologies” in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
2019 – 2020 School Year: The Energy Impact Center in partnership with the University of Michigan has created the first ever Nuclear Energy Grand Challenge: Reimagining Nuclear Waste which will engage collegiate innovators and entrepreneurs to tackle one of the most unique challenges facing the nuclear energy industry – the perception of nuclear waste. The winning team will be awarded a cash prize. Learn more about the Nuclear Energy Grand Challenge here.
