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June 26, 2007
Energy research
Many people (including myself) believe that clean energy technology is the next big thing. (See the recent Business Week story - The Business Benefits of Going Green)
Today, the Energy Department will put its oar in the water by announcing three new biofuel research centers, according to the New York Times:
One of the new bioenergy centers will be led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, an Energy Department lab in Tennessee. Participants include another lab, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colo.; the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; the University of Georgia, Athens, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
A Great Lakes center, in Madison, Wis., will be led by the University of Wisconsin, and will include Michigan State University, East Lansing; the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash.; the Lucigen Corporation, Middleton, Wis.; the University of Florida, Gainesville; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Illinois State University, Normal; and Iowa State University, Ames.
The third, the Joint Bioenergy Institute, will be led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, and will include Sandia National Laboratories; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Davis; and Stanford. Dr. Orbach said that the centers’ geographic diversity would help researchers examine a wide range of plants.
The centers, each to be financed by $25 million a year, are supposed to be fully operational by the fiscal year beginning Sept. 1, 2009.
$25 million isn't much -- but it is a start.
BTW, DOE yesterday announced two wind turbine testing centers as well. Only $4 million - but again it’s a start.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at June 26, 2007 9:41 AM
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