US government dishes out latest clean tech funding round

As diplomats gathered at this week's Copenhagen Summit step up pressure on the US to demonstrate its commitment to tackling climate change, the Department of Energy has sought to give its negotiating team an additional bargaining chip with the a flurry of announcements awarding fresh grants to major clean technology projects.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced late last week that around $1.6bn is to be awarded to projects designed to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage and biorefinery technologies, while it was also confirmed yesterday that a further $100bn has been awarded to advanced energy research projects.

The bulk of the new cash will be awarded to CCS projects with $979m awarded to three commercial-scale demonstration projects as part of an investment programme worth $3bn in total.

"This investment is part of our commitment to advancing carbon capture and storage technologies to the point that widespread, affordable deployment can begin in eight to ten years," said Secretary Chu.

The funding has been awarded to high profile projects in Ohio, Washington and Alabama led by American Electric Power Company, Southern Company Services and Summit Texas Clean Energy respectively.

The announcement was welcomed by West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, who argued it provided proof that clean technologies could ensure that the coal industry in the US continues to prosper while overall emissions fall.

"Coal has and always will be an enormous part of our West Virginia soul and when we invest in new technologies that make it better and cleaner, we are taking control our future - and that is the key," he said. "I firmly believe that these types of technology developments will help in reversing the recent trend of uncertainty in the coal industry and inspire further investment in coal."

The announcement was followed by the award of over $600m of federal funding to 19 biorefinery projects as part of a $1.3bn project, while three advanced biofuel, carbon capture and energy storage projects were also celebrating yesterday when the DoE awarded $100m of funding through its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.