1. ClearPath brings Congressional staff to Oak Ridge
This week, ClearPath brought a delegation of 12 Congressional staff to Tennessee as part of its Clean Energy Innovation Academy (CEIA), where they visited Oak Ridge National Lab’s:
Manufacturing Demonstration Facility
TRISO Fuel Lab
High Flux Isotope Reactor
Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility
L-R: Elizabeth Joseph, Shawn Rusterholz, Taylor Tougaw, Maddie Mitchell, Josh Weber, Anna Claire Stietenroth, Justin Williams, Katherine Robbins, Dillyn Carpenter, Frances Wetherbee, Bridget Dunn, Athina Lawson, Luke Nickless, Amanda Sollazzo, Ari Boosalis, Emily Johnson, Jake Kincer, David Maestas, Aaron Trujillo
What’s clear: Accelerating American innovation to reduce global energy emissions is critical in helping the U.S. lead in the development and deployment of innovative technologies. The U.S. National Labs are home to the world’s top experts working on breakthroughs in clean energy technologies.
Plug in: Read more about this site visit in our full blog.
L-R: Aaron Trujillo, Josh Weber, Shawn Rusterholz, Emily Johnson, Taylor Tougaw, Athina Lawson, Dillyn Carpenter, Katherine Robbins, Niko McMurray, Anna Claire Stietenroth, Frances Wetherbee, Amanda Sollazzo, Elizabeth Joseph, Bridget Dunn, Luke Nickless, Ari Boosalis, Justin Williams, David Maestas, Jake Kincer, Maddie Mitchell
2. EXIM finances NuScale’s SMR in Romania
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) approved a final commitment for a $98 million loan to support pre-project services for a NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) in Romania. The project:
Will have a 462 MW installed capacity;
Is expected to support 400 U.S. jobs;
Showcases America’s ability to leverage its advanced technical expertise to export cutting-edge clean energy innovation.
Complements the letters of interest signed by EXIM and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) in 2023 to support up to $3 billion and $1 billion, respectively, for SMR project deployment in Romania.
What’s clear: This initiative underscores the importance of U.S. leadership in global energy development. By exporting state-of-the-art technology and services, the U.S. plays a crucial role in helping partner countries gain access to secure, reliable 24/7 clean power.
3. New ARPA-E funding for tech commercialization
The Department of Energy’s ARPA-E announced the next wave of funding, through the SCALEUP Ready program. SCALEUP provides additional funding for successful ARPA-E projects to allow them to reach commercialization. The SCALEUP Ready funding opportunity will:
Have up to $50 million available funding;
Be open on a rolling basis for applications, creating more flexibility.
What’s clear: This SCALEUP program supports ARPA-E’s successful projects in reaching commercialization and maximizing the return on investment of ARPA-E-supported technology.
4. Clean Energy Ministerial emphasizes Brazil’s clean energy role
ClearPath’s Senior Program Director of International Policy, Nick Lombardo, participated at the 15th Clean Energy Ministerial and 9th Mission Innovation (CEM/MI) gathering that happened alongside the G20 Energy Ministerial in Brazil, which:
Is a growing energy powerhouse in the Western Hemisphere;
Plays a key role in reducing global emissions and advancing clean energy;
Has world-class clean energy infrastructure like the Itaipu Dam, the second largest hydroelectric plant globally – designed with American Engineering.
What’s clear: ClearPath continues to focus on modernizing U.S. trade and development finance to amplify the global impact of American innovation. By strengthening energy diplomacy, the U.S. can collaborate with partners like Brazil to expand reliable, affordable and clean energy solutions.
Plug in: Learn more about the significance of the American global leadership in our newest blog here.
5. Form Energy receives financing to expand battery operation
Form Energy announced a $405 million Series F financing round that will allow the company to accelerate and scale up manufacturing of its multi-day, iron-air batteries for the electric grid. This funding will support Form’s U.S. based manufacturing operations in:
Weirton, WV and R&D facility in Somerville, MA.
Form previously announced project deployment located in Maine and Minnesota
What’s clear: As power sector decarbonization accelerates, long-duration energy storage (LDES) has emerged as an essential technology to maximize grid reliability and integrate renewable energy. LDES technologies can help enable high levels of intermittent renewables on power grids.
ClearPath’s Senior Program Manager of Clean Energy and Permitting, Matt Mailloux, will participate in a panel discussion today at the Yale Clean Energy Conference, discussing recent breakthroughs in enhanced geothermal and what’s coming in 2025.
7. What we’re watching
The U.S. and China are in a high-tech race to achieve and commercialize an elusive clean energy source: nuclear fusion. Fusion is an innovative technology that produces clean energy. American fusion companies like Helion, Avalanche Fusion and Commonwealth Fusion Systems are designing fusion reactors and working to demonstrate electricity while scaling up in-house domestic manufacturing to eliminate reliance on international suppliers like China. Learn what’s at stake as the competition over the future of clean energy technology intensifies around the world in this Wall Street Journal video.
8. ICYMI
ABOVE: Niko McMurray spoke on a panel hosted by USTDA about overcoming development and deployment challenges for nuclear reactors.
The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), developed classification requirements for floating nuclear power plants.
The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) joined the Center for Hydrogen Safety to bolster hydrogen pipeline safety and the work of the Hydrogen Interagency Taskforce.
The Rhodium Group released their Climate Outlook 2024, which found that by 2050, manufacturing will emit more greenhouse gases than the power, transport, and building sectors combined.
Global carbon capture, utilization & storage (CCUS) markets are forecasted to grow from a 2023 value of $2.5 billion (US) to $51.6 billion (US) by 2050 according to a new report.
Charm Industrial is working with the U.S. Forest Service to reduce wildfire risk and permanently remove carbon from the air.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a proposed rule for Part 53, a new framework for licensing advanced nuclear reactors.
DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced $29 million for 12 R&D projects focused on using carbon to create products and developing low-cost technologies to capture CO2.
The DOE selected six companies to support the deconversion of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) to support advanced nuclear reactors.
That’s all from us. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
