06 Mar 2009
US energy secretary, Steven Chu, yesterday called on a Senate committee to authorise far greater levels of government support for energy research, arguing that the onus is on the federal government to help incubate cutting edge low carbon technologies before they become commercially viable.
Chu was testifying at a hearing held by the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to review the future direction of energy research and development. He argued there was an urgent need for greater funding, and a renewed focus on how to spend that money more wisely.
"Dan Kammen of U.C. Berkeley has conducted studies showing that while overall investment in research and development is roughly three per cent of gross domestic product on average, it is roughly one-tenth of that average in the energy sector," he complained.
Chu pointed to the recently-passed stimulus package as a means of helping to solve the problem, arguing that it had doubled funding for research into the basic sciences. He promised a more detailed Department of Energy budget in April, which would outline funding for different areas including developing scientific talent in energy research.
He also promised the inclusion of new graduate fellowship research programmes in the energy budget to help bolster the number of skilled professionals entering the sector.
Chu also called for greater government support for cutting edge " transformational" energy research, arguing there was a need for "game changing, rather than incremental" science.
"DOE must strive to be the modern version of the old Bell Labs in energy
research," he said, drawing parallels between the valve and the transistor in
electronics research. "Because the payoffs from research in transformational
technologies are both higher risk and longer term, government investment is
critical and appropriate."
He argued that the Government should be involved in developing certain areas of
low carbon technology to the point where the private sector can run with them.
These include the creation of fuel from non-food crops and bio-waste, automotive batteries with greater longevity, reducing the cost of photovoltaic by 80 per cent, and computer design tools to increase energy efficiency in buildings. Finally, the Government could help to develop energy storage technology that could turn renewable power sources into base load generators, he said.
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WHAT DO YOU THINK? Add your comment
growth of alternative energy
Many U.S. residents have practical and useful ideas on the growth of green energy, solar, biofuel, and battery technologies. The government should create a method for people to propose their ideas. This would cause a more positive reinforcement for not only more participation in a "greener" society, but people who have ideas will benefit the country instead of keeping the ideas to themselves.
Posted by Shin Kim, 12 Mar 2009
First Things First - replenish and restore
While Secretary Chu rightfully works toward emission reduction strategies such as clean coal the real problem is not tomorrows CO2 but yesterdays CO2 we must turn our attention to the 1000+ gigatonne carbon bomb, two centuries of our accumulating CO2, still mostly in the air as it takes centuries for airborne CO2 to equilibrate with the rest of the planet. Today only 500 gigatonnes of yesterdays CO2 has reached the oceans and Revelle?s Rule tells science that 80% of CO2 ends up there. The rest of that deadly already airborne carbon bomb will continue to explode with devastating effects in the ocean for more than a century even if we were to stop the emission of all new CO2 today. No amount of switching to alternative energies, recycling, bicycling, or ?clean coal? will tend to the first carbon bomb. Sure lets reduce the size of the second bomb but first things first. Here's how! ONLY through ocean replenishment and restoration we can enlist as allies the most powerful force of nature on earth - the ocean plants, the bloomin? plankton. But the high and rising CO2 in the air is not only responsible for ocean acidification, more troublesome it has fed green plants on land making them greener, bushier, and helped them live longer making what we call "good ground cover." Ground cover improvements have reduced the amount of dust blowing in the winds by 1/3 in just a few decades. For the oceans dust in the wind brings vital mineral micro-nutrients to the oceans, that terrestrial Yin is just as important as rain, the Yang, that blows from sea to land nurturing plant life. Since earth and ocean observing satellites went aloft 30 years ago we've measured vast decimation of ocean plant life, 10% and more is gone from the Southern Ocean, 17% from the N. Atlantic, 26% from the N. Pacific, and 50% from the tropical seas. Just yesterday, those few decades ago, the ocean pastures grew more verdant consuming 4-5 billion tonnes more CO2 each year than today. So today, as stewards of this blue planet, we must replenish ocean micro-nutrients to restore the ocean pastures. If we manage, and we surely can, to bring the ocean plankton blooms back to levels seen only 30 years ago those plants will annually convert billions of tonnes of CO2 into ocean life instead of acid ocean death. Those verdant restored ocean pastures will deliver 7 times the CO2 reductions called for by the Kyoto Protocol. To begin, and we must without delay, the work requires only tens of millions, to succeed in a matter of a decade requires only a few billions. In the bargain the restored oceans will feed everything from tiny krill to the great whales and everything and everybody in between - fish, seabirds, penguins, seals and us. Replenish and restore the oceans without delay. Read more at www.planktos-science.com
Posted by Russ, 08 Mar 2009