Energy Innovation

At ClearPath, we believe streamlining the permitting process is feasible without changing any of the environmental protection laws, introducing more regulation or new taxation, or revoking the public’s opportunity to be involved. The need to act is urgent, and can only be done if there are efforts to Build Cleaner Faster.

Policy makers in Denver, D.C., and across the country are looking for ways to make the transition to 100% clean energy to address climate change and improve our environment. Colorado was among the first few states in the nation to set a target to provide carbon-free power by mid-century.

American innovation is driving down the cost of emerging storage technologies, including advanced batteries, thermal storage, and hydrogen. But the largest source of energy storage is also the most overlooked: pumped storage hydropower – though with recent policy and project developments, pumped storage may finally start to get the credit it deserves.

At the Clean Energy Ministerial in 2018, foreign ministers from the U.S., Japan, and Canada established the Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy (NICE) Future initiative. This year, the NICE Future Initiative is spearheading the Flexible Nuclear Campaign for Nuclear Renewables Integration.

We’re still in the early days of developing the hydrogen ecosystem. This makes the federal government’s role to establish the rules of the road (or to help pave the road) and to seed critical R&D activities that can pay dividends in the future critically important.

With clean energy and climate policy on the top of the to-do list for this Congress and Administration, policymakers should pick up where they left off in December – working together on real, bipartisan solutions that accelerate clean energy innovation. Carbon capture is just the beginning.

Indiana’s federal lawmakers are ahead of the curve on investing in new, clean technologies that create new jobs and a cleaner and healthier environment for all. As the nation looks to establish its own hydrogen policy roadmap, Indiana is a good place to start.

When you hear that climate change is real, and industrial activity around the globe is the dominant contributor, you may assume a Democrat or environmental organization said it. But, today it’s coming from leaders in the Republican party and most oil and gas companies.

On April 15, 2021, ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell testified before the Senate Committee on The Budget in a hearing entitled, “The Cost of Inaction on Climate Change.

Republicans have made tremendous strides on climate change. We have institutionalized big, bold goals anchored by clean energy breakthroughs, and even campaign on innovation as the best approach to solving the climate challenge.

Congress recently passed one of the biggest advancements in clean energy and climate policy in over a decade – the monumental Energy Act of 2020. Tucked away in the 5,000 page end of year omnibus was a wholly bipartisan, clean energy innovation roadmap.

Metals are an integral part of our society. Ranging from basic steels to high-performance alloys, metals are a necessary resource in transporting electricity on the grid, constructing buildings, producing everyday kitchen and household items, creating bridges and tunnels, and building trains, cars and even planes.

Carbon capture and sequestration must be a tool in the proverbial technology toolbox. Streamlining the permitting process and removing obstacles for the deployment of CCS is crucial for the success of this technology in large-scale CO2 emission reductions.

The environmental permitting process, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) must keep pace with the transition to a clean energy economy. This could be the largest continental construction project in history, and every new transmission line, wind farm, solar panel, pipeline or power plant will begin with a permit. If we are to truly build back better, the mission ought to be Build Cleaner Faster.

On February 25, 2021, ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell testified before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies in a hearing entitled, “Strategies for Energy and Climate Innovation.”

Addressing climate change is undeniably a top priority for the Biden administration. As the tragic weather events in Texas and across the Midwest wreak havoc on our energy system, preparing our grid to be reliable needs to be front and center.

Since the Roman Empire, cement and concrete have been used as a building block of societies. Today, concrete is the most used man-made material on the planet, used in everything from roads to buildings and more.

On February 18, 2021, ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy in a hearing entitled, “A Smarter Investment: Pathways to a Clean Energy Future.”

Hydrogen is the smallest atom in the universe, yet this tiny molecule has huge potential to connect energy generation, energy storage, transportation, and industry. It’s been nearly 20 years since hydrogen has gotten as much press and attention as it is today – a resurgence likely due to the revelation that more than the electricity sector must be decarbonized to tackle climate change.

At ClearPath, reducing power-sector emissions has been our primary focus for the past six years; however, this year, we are excited to add the industrial sector (see: manufacturing) to our portfolio. Combined with the power sector, this really expands our scope – going from tackling a quarter of U.S. carbon emissions to half.

A strong U.S. industrial sector is essential to ensuring new technologies invented in the U.S. can be manufactured domestically, rather than in China, which would result in more jobs and fewer carbon dioxide emissions.

Now that DOE has finalized the Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap, the tough job of doing the work begins. The Roadmap provides clear goals for DOE to pursue in the coming years, providing new opportunities for entrepreneurs to demonstrate and scale their innovative technologies.

The reality of Democrat majorities in the U.S. Senate and the House is sending a shiver through the Texas oil and gas industry. As the 117th Congress kicks off, energy eyes are on whether President Joe Biden will use these majorities to fulfill the campaign promise that he’ll “phase out fossil fuels.” In his first big signals, he’s revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and placing a moratorium on all oil and gas-related leasing and permitting actions on federal lands.

Carbon capture enjoyed a winter flurry of federal policy victories in the waning days of 2020 and at the start of 2021. In just a little more than a week, carbon capture hit a policy trifecta: new, aggressive R&D authorizations, a carbon capture tax credit (“45Q”) extension, and final Administrative rules on how project developers can properly claim the 45Q credit.

The domestic nuclear fleet is vital for both mitigating climate change and supporting the U.S. economy. By finding innovative ways to use current and future nuclear reactors, we can leverage our existing infrastructure to decarbonize and add millions to the U.S. economy.

Harnessing water for beneficial uses has existed for centuries. Ancient Greeks and Romans used water in ways similar to industrial processes today – for grinding wheat, agriculture via aqueducts, and medicinal purposes. Modern hydropower or hydroelectric power has been utilized for over one hundred years and remains a clean, reliable electricity asset.

The components to build a successful supply chain for American lithium and energy storage exist: lithium reserves, a capable workforce, domestic demand, and economic power. Yet to successfully link these components, the U.S. must strategically tackle the web of factors that a battery faces on its journey around the globe and into your pocket.

What if we could harness the reaction at the core of the sun to generate power? For decades, scientists have been trying to do just that: create a fusion generator that could supply the world with unlimited clean electricity from hydrogen molecules found in seawater.

Energy sector innovation and broader efforts to address climate change should resemble the best of the tech start-ups in the U.S.: fast, disruptive, exciting and good for consumers. The Energy Sector Innovation Credit, or ESIC, would update the energy portion of the tax code by allowing cutting-edge technologies to gain commercial viability and upend the status quo without distorting the free market.

The U.S. oil and gas industry has been instrumental in the recent landmark reductions of greenhouse gas emissions seen across America. Enabled by ultra-productive natural gas harvesting methods, clean burning natural gas replaced coal as the leading source of U.S. electricity — driving a 28% drop in grid emissions since 2005.

The House Energy & Commerce Republicans hosted the first-ever “Energy & Environment Innovation Showcase” – an exhibition designed to celebrate a host of American innovators and outline a clear legislative agenda to support realistic climate solutions.

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. Quidnet is one of the most exciting and promising companies in the grid scale energy storage space.

Geothermal is a critical, clean, renewable, dispatchable power source that deserves more attention. Geothermal harnesses the Earth’s core for heat that can be used in homes, industrial processes, or to generate electricity.

With strategies now laser-focused on affordably meeting both growing global demand for reliable and lower-carbon power, chances remain high that the new generation of miracle technologies will be created in an American national laboratory in collaboration with the U.S. private sector.

Much like the term “energy efficiency”, carbon capture is an umbrella term for many technologies. This overview describes the main technology types.

Watch this ClearPath whiteboard video on the exciting new technology coming from Jupiter Oxygen, and why you should pay attention to the future of coal plants with carbon capture.

How nuclear fuel is created and deployed is complex and often misunderstood; this article provides a high-level, broad explanation of how low enriched uranium nuclear fuel is currently made and a short introduction to innovative fuel alternatives.

Too often, climate change policy is oversimplified to false choices: renewables versus fossils, economy versus environment, 100% reductions versus inaction. The reality is this: solutions must make the clean energy transition cheaper and faster while preserving economic growth and reflecting the global nature of the challenge.

In this whiteboard video, ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell explains the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act (NELA) and why it is worth closely tracking.

In a break from our regularly scheduled programming, we wanted to highlight some hidden innovation gems being researched at the Department of Energy that could prove to be just as critical in expanding a reliable and clean power sector.

Geothermal energy is a highly promising and reliable zero-emission technology. Besides critical investments in R&D, the biggest hindrance to geothermal development are permitting and other regulatory barriers that are more stringent than for oil and gas.

Leaders of some of the world’s largest corporations have used best-in-class data to determine that climate change is a dire global risk deserving of serious solutions.

Do a set of little-understood but far-reaching Clean Air Act permitting requirements unintentionally impede a key tool for addressing industrial-caused climate change? ClearPath’s Faith Smith and Justin Ong dive into how New Source Review requirements can affect carbon capture upgrades at power plants and other facilities.

U.S. and global climate and clean power goals won’t be achievable without existing and next-generation nuclear generation. The scale of global environmental challenges demands that we continue developing and improving on a range of low-carbon options.

Recent reports from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) have indicated a 14 percent decline in U.S. energy-related carbon emissions from 2005 to 2017. The main driver behind this emissions reduction is that more electricity has been generated from natural gas than from other fossil fuels.

Energy storage can help the grid in so many ways – it allows us to save electricity for a more appropriate time or can be used in multiple applications to assist in balancing and maintaining the grid.

American leadership is essential to bend the curve of carbon pollution downward toward zero. A U.S.-powered international initiative to accelerate progress on a technology essential to that push — long-duration energy storage — would demonstrate that leadership.

ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell’s whiteboard video details why the future of storing nuclear, renewable and other clean power will depend on the world moving past the blood diamond of batteries.

Mission Innovation (MI) is an initiative by 22 countries and the European Commission to increase collaboration on clean energy research and development (R&D). The initiative was launched in 2015 by the United States, France, India and a coalition of business leaders.

A recent study cosponsored by ClearPath forecasted huge economic benefits tied to enhanced oil recovery and carbon capture that may sound too good to be true – until you hear it has already been happening for nearly half a century in the United States.

American scientists are the world’s energy pioneers. For the past century, their research has positioned us to lead on virtually every energy technology, from solar panels to clean coal. We can cement this legacy with commonsense reforms that enable and inspire American ingenuity. Download Policy Overview  How to Reform Innovation Policy Click below to navigate around reformation advice…

The Energy Department’s ARPA-E agency, a widely popular and successful federal advanced energy agency now has its sights set on a new potential breakthrough: next-generation nuclear technologies.

Natural gas is an energy Swiss Army knife used for electricity generation, transportation fuels, and home heating. The fuel can also be used to make a variety of chemicals, such as fertilizers and hydrogen. Current estimates show the United States has enough natural gas to last us through the end of the 21st century.

Nuclear energy development peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, and most of our current reactors began in those two decades. Increased regulation and opposition from environmental groups and their allies have contributed to the slowdown in nuclear energy growth. Nuclear development in the U.S. has virtually flat-lined for the past three decades and continues to face huge challenges.

Hydropower harnesses the force of flowing water to create electricity. It is one of the oldest and most affordable ways to make electricity. In fact, one of the world’s first commercial power projects made hydroelectricity from Niagara Falls in 1896. In a testament to their durability, many hydropower projects built during that era are still churning out electrons today.

Technology innovation is America’s specialty. It’s what maintains our international leadership and competitive edge and what will ensure our nation’s future success. Half of all economic growth in the U.S. since WWII can be linked to technological innovation.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (“CCS” or “CCUS”) refers to a suite of technologies that selectively capture carbon dioxide from industrial sources or the atmosphere, where the captured molecules are geologically stored or “recycled” to make products.

The suspension — at least for now — of the first two U.S. conventional nuclear reactors under construction in more than three decades, underscores what was already painfully obvious: the future of nuclear and of clean energy broadly will rest on the backs of people who decide to lead today.

There are few “game changers” in the energy space. NET Power has the potential to be one of them. If successful, it will greatly simplify the process and equipment needed to produce not just cleaner power, but emission-free power from coal and natural gas.

At ClearPath, we work on conservative clean energy policy. Wait, what? What is conservative clean energy? We can explain and few approach these issues in exactly the way we do. Here are the top 10 reasons why we work on conservative clean energy.

The Department of Energy can return to its innovation heyday, where policymakers, researchers and developers were all on the same page on what was needed to turn a blueprint into a billion-dollar industrial breakthrough. But it’ll take sustained federal dollars and vision to get there.

I was encouraged to hear now-Energy Secretary Rick Perry, in his recent Senate confirmation hearing, suggest that the Department of Energy will help foster carbon capture technologies, advanced nuclear reactors and innovation through our best-in-the-world national labs.

The gas that lights your stove and heats your water is also changing the world. It’s natural gas, and thanks to fracking, it’s cheap and plentiful in America. Fracking kicked off a new energy renaissance in America. The innovation is one of the factors that has helped bring our economy out of recession and has helped create hundreds of thousands of American jobs across the country.

For the longest time, the left has owned this debate; calling for wind and solar, battery storage and energy efficiency. These technologies are a growing part of our energy mix but will only be a portion of our future supply. A cleaner energy future must be based on nuclear, hydropower and clean fossil fuels – workhorses that provide reliable baseload electric power 24/7.

I want conservatives to be leaders on clean energy – from nuclear to hydropower to clean fossil fuels – both to make the environment better and strengthen real conservative leadership.

Common sense reforms would boost American energy security, grow the tax base, and help commercialize low-carbon fossil fuel technologies. Instead of just saying no, environmentalists, private firms and government must roll up their sleeves and work together to drive growth and ensure a cleaner, more secure energy future.