Government Grants for Alternative Energy
In his State of the Union Address for 2007,
President George W. Bush called for a 22%
increase in federal grants for research and development of alternative
energy. However, in a speech he gave soon after, he said to those assembled, I
recognize that there has been some interesting mixed signals when it comes to
funding.
Where the mixed signals were coming from concerned the fact that at
the same time the President was calling on more government backing for alternative
energy research and development, the NREL—the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory of Golden, Colardo—was laying off workers and contractors left and
right.
Apparently, the Laboratory got the hint, because soon after the State of
the Union Address, everyone was re-hired. The second speech of the President's
was actually given at the NREL. There is almost unanimous public support for
the federal backing through research grants, tax breaks, and other financial
incentives of research and development of alternative energy sources.
The NREL is the nation's leading component of
the National Bioenergy Center, a “virtual” center that has no central bricks
and mortar office. The NREL's raison d'etre is the advancing of the US
Department of Energy's and the United States' alternative energy objectives.
The laboratory's field researchers and staff scientists, in the words of
Laboratory Director Dan Arvizu, “support critical market objectives to
accelerate research from scientific innovations to market-viable alternative
energy solutions. At the core of this strategic direction are NREL's research
and technology development areas.
These areas span from understanding renewable
resources for energy, to the conversion of these resources to renewable
electricity and fuels, and ultimately to the use of renewable electricity and
fuels in homes, commercial buildings, and vehicles.” The federally-backed
Laboratory directly helps along the United States' objectives for discovering
renewable alternative fuels for powering our economy and our lifestyles.
The
NREL is set up to have several areas of expertise in alternative energy
research and development. It spearheads research and development efforts into
renewable sources of electricity: these would include such things as solar
power, wind power, biomass power, and geothermal power. It also spearheads
research and development of renewable fuels for powering our vehicles such as
biomass and biodiesel fuels and hydrogen fuel cells.
Then, it seeks to develop
plans for integrated system enginnering; this includes bringing alternative
energy into play within buildings, electrical grids and delivery systems, and
transportation infrastructures. The Laboratory is also set up for strategic
development and analysis of alternative energy objectives through the forces of
economics, market analysis and planning, and alternative energy investment
portfolios structurings.
The NREL is additionally equipped with a Technology Transfer Office. This Office supports
laboratory scientists and engineers in the practical application of and ability
to make a living from their expertise and the technologies they develop.
NREL's
research and development staff and its facilities are recognized for their
remarkable prowess by private industry, which is reflected in the hundreds of
collaborative projects and licensed
technologies that the Laboratory now has with both public and private partners.
0 comments:
Post a Comment