Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending Oct. 5. Feedback is always welcome at info@clearpathaction.org.
REFORMING THE GLOBAL MISSION INNOVATION EFFORT
Mission Innovation, an initiative by 22 countries and the European Commission to collaborate on clean energy R&D, has been successful in ratcheting up public and private R&D funding since it was launched in 2015 by the US., France, India and a Bill Gates-led business sector collaboration. The initial focus was to “double clean energy R&D funding within 5 years,” and indeed there remains the goal to increase baseline committed funding from $14.8 billion in 2016 to $30 billion by 2021.
But ClearPath’s innovation chief Spencer Nelson is arguing that a new vision is needed for the effort if it is to really succeed in driving significant global clean energy innovation.
The initiative would greatly benefit from removing the funding end goal and instead create performance-based goals for countries and/or technologies, Spencer says in a new white paper. “Without a focus on tangible outcomes it is possible that money will be shifted around without producing viable results,” he writes.
Another key change would be creating Innovation Challenges specifically for nuclear power and energy storage and also considering international collaboration on low-emission or zero-emission industrial sector processes, which are expected to grow at the same rate as the power sector globally over the next 20 years and likely to contribute a much larger share of total emissions.
Very much related to Spencer’s Mission Innovation recommendations:
The Energy Policy Institute at the Univ. of Chicago, in partnership with ClearPath, the American Council for Capital Formation and the Univ. of Oxford, is hosting an Oct. 10 event in Washington, DC, on “Clean Energy Innovation: Making the Most of R&D Investments.” The event features academic researchers, policymakers and businesspeople from the U.S. and U.K. to provide insight into how to translate research findings into actionable policy and industry approaches that can drive clean energy innovation. RSVP
RITA BARANWAL NOMINATED TO HEAD DOE’S NUCLEAR OFFICE
The White House nominated Rita Baranwal to head the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, a move that should bode well for the Trump administration’s broader effort to review and revitalize the U.S. nuclear power sector.
Her extensive and senior nuclear policy experience includes as director of the Gateway for Acceleration Innovation in Nuclear effort housed at Idaho National Laboratory since August 2016. She was previously director of technology development and core engineering/nuclear fuel at Westinghouse Electric and a manager at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory.
“We are excited to hear about Rita’s nomination to be Assistant Secretary,” Spencer Nelson said. “Rita has an extensive background in both the private sector and at the national labs. That includes spearheading DOE’s GAIN initiative, which works to make the department and national labs much more accessible to advanced nuclear companies. She will be able to start right away on achieving the president’s comprehensive nuclear energy policy review.”
Energy Secretary Rick Perry appointed ClearPath Founder Jay Faison to the Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee, which will offer advice and recommendations on scientific, commercial, technical and programmatic issues to DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
DOE ANNOUNCES $30M FOR CARBON CAPTURE TECH
DOE announced up to $30 million for federal support for cost-shared carbon capture R&D. The selected projects will specifically support development of solvent, sorbent and membrane technologies to address scientific challenges and knowledge gaps tied to reducing the cost of carbon capture.
The funding is the second announced under DOE’s Novel and Enabling Carbon Capture Transformational Technologies effort.
THE PATH AHEAD
WEDNESDAY Atomic Wings Lunch & Learn event on Capitol Hill co-hosted by DOE’s Office Of Nuclear Energy and the Space Foundation: “To Mars and Beyond: How Nuclear Energy Powers Deep Space Missions.” RSVP
