FROM: THE WHITE HOUSE
February 10, 2015
FACT SHEET: Obama Administration Announces Initiative to Scale Up Investment in Clean Energy Innovation
President Obama is committed to addressing the impacts of climate change to protect future generations. As part of that effort, today, the Administration is launching a Clean Energy Investment Initiative and announcing a goal to catalyze $2 billion of expanded private sector investment in solutions to climate change, including innovative technologies with breakthrough potential to reduce carbon pollution.
Further clean energy innovation to improve the cost, performance, and scalability of low-carbon energy technologies will be critical to taking action against climate change. Substantial technological progress has been made in recent years in solar photovoltaics, wind power, advanced batteries, energy-efficient lighting, and fuel cells. For example, the cost of solar energy systems has decreased 50 percent since 2010 alone. But additional investment is needed.
Mission-driven investors – such as foundations, university endowments, and institutional investors – can play a catalytic role in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy. A growing number of such organizations have committed to investing in clean energy innovation and solutions to climate change, in pursuit of both financial returns and mission-aligned impact. Today’s announcements will help clean energy investors reduce transaction costs, spread promising investment models, and increase their climate mitigation impact.
That is why the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing that it will help catalyze philanthropic activity through the Clean Energy Investment Initiative by leading an effort to identify opportunities to leverage its world-class technical expertise, technologies, and programs to assist in understanding opportunities and needs that drive clean energy innovation – with a focus on mission-oriented investors seeking climate and environmental impact. DOE will work to mobilize a broad range of philanthropists and impact investors to scale up investments throughout the energy innovation pipeline, from laboratory R&D to startup funding to growth-stage financing – supporting the kind of technology innovation that the ARPA-E Summit, where this initiative was announced, is all about.
To kick off this call to action, the White House will host a Clean Energy Investment Summit later this spring, as a forum for foundations, family offices, and institutional investors to scale up private sector investment in clean energy innovation.
Further, today philanthropic and private sector leaders are making initial announcements toward scaling up investment in clean energy innovation, including:
The University of California Board of Regents will build on its commitment to allocate at least $1 billion of its endowment and pension over five years for investments in solutions to climate change by developing an innovative vehicle that combines three complementary objectives: First, to partner with philanthropists interested in de-risking early-stage technologies with high climate related impact potential. Second, to target, through the independently managed vehicle, for-profit investments in technologies with the potential to deliver both significant climate change mitigation and high investment returns. Third, to partner with the world's largest institutional investors in a follow-on facility that will offer proven technologies and companies an "on ramp" to commercial scale. The Office of the Chief Investment Officer will engage with foundations, family offices, and institutional investors to strengthen this long-term innovation pipeline.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation will work to connect investors with early-stage clean energy companies, so that a growing number of foundations and other mission-driven organizations can efficiently and effectively finance innovative technologies with high impact potential. The Foundation has developed deep experience in building and sustaining multi-foundation alliances to limit the risks of climate change and advance clean energy.
The Schmidt Family Foundation has allocated a significant portion of its assets to impact investing, with the aim of filling market gaps to finance solutions that mitigate climate change. To help grow the community of practice alongside other institutions, the Foundation will share its expertise and ongoing findings in sourcing, vetting, and structuring impact investments, especially for pre-market technologies.
Wells Fargo will build on its commitment of $100 million in environmental grants by 2020 to accelerate the transition to a greener economy, which includes the $10 million Innovation Incubator (IN2) program to foster the development of early-stage energy efficiency technologies for commercial buildings. Co-administered by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), this first-of-its-kind program will provide startups with grant funding, mentorship, research and testing support at NREL, and real-world field testing in Wells Fargo buildings to de-risk these technologies and accelerate their commercial adoption. Having developed this unique expertise in collaborating with a National Laboratory and deploying foundation dollars to support energy startups, Wells Fargo will work to expand investment partnerships for these field-tested technologies and to rally other major companies to build complementary programs that support clean energy innovation.
TODAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT BUILDS ON EXISTING PROGRESS
Under the Obama Administration, the Department of Energy has already helped put in place many successful initiatives to develop or deploy advanced energy technologies.
ARPA-E has invested approximately $1.1 billion across more than 400 potentially transformational energy technology projects. The President’s FY16 Budget also called for $325 million for DOE’S ARPA-E to further support potentially transformative applied energy research.
DOE’s Solar Access to Public Capital working group has assembled over 300 leading organizations working together to increase public capital markets’ financing of solar energy projects.
DOE’s Loan Programs Office continues to support clean energy deployment and has made use of co-lending to bring new commercial lenders into the market to gain experience financing innovative projects.
The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, a new public-private consortium of 122 leading U.S. manufacturers, universities, and non-profits focused on advanced composites, is providing open access to a network of shared research, development and demonstration facilities at national laboratories and premier universities.
Showing posts with label FUEL CELLS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FUEL CELLS. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Saturday, March 15, 2014
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY USES FUEL CELLS TO INVESTIGATE ORIGINS OF LIFE
FROM: NASA
How Did Life Arise? Fuel Cells May Have Answers
How life arose from the toxic and inhospitable environment of our planet billions of years ago remains a deep mystery. Researchers have simulated the conditions of an early Earth in test tubes, even fashioning some of life's basic ingredients. But how those ingredients assembled into living cells, and how life was first able to generate energy, remain unknown.
A new study led by Laurie Barge of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., demonstrates a unique way to study the origins of life: fuel cells.
Fuel cells are found in specialized cars, planes and NASA's human spacecraft, such as the now-retired space shuttle. The cells are similar to batteries in generating electricity and power, but they require fuel, such as hydrogen gas. In the new study, the fuel cells are not used for power, but for testing chemical reactions thought to have led to the development of life.
"Something about Earth led to life, and we think one important factor was that the planet provides electrical energy at the seafloor," said Barge. "This energy could have kick-started life -- and could have sustained life after it arose. Now, we have a way of testing different materials and environments that could have helped life arise not just on Earth, but possibly on Mars, Europa and other places in the solar system."
Barge is a member of the JPL Icy Worlds team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The team's paper appears online March 13 in the journal Astrobiology.
One of the basic functions of life as we know it is the ability to store and use energy. In cells, this is a form of metabolism and involves the transfer of electrons from one molecule to another. The process is at work in our own bodies, giving us energy.
Fuel cells are similar to biological cells in that electrons are also transferred to and from molecules. In both cases, this results in electricity and power. In order for a fuel cell to work, it needs fuel, such as hydrogen gas, along with electrodes and catalysts, which help transfer the electrons. Electrons are transferred from an electron donor (such as hydrogen) to an electron acceptor (such as oxygen), resulting in current. In your cells, metal-containing enzymes -- your biological catalysts -- transfer electrons and generate energy for life.
In the team’s experiments, the fuel cell electrodes and catalysts are made of primitive geological material thought to have existed on early Earth. If this material can help transfer electrons, the researchers will observe an electrical current. By testing different types of materials, these fuel cell experiments allow the scientists to narrow in on the chemistry that might have taken place when life first arose on Earth.
"What we are proposing here is to simulate energetic processes, which could bridge the gap between the geological processes of the early Earth and the emergence of biological life on this planet," said Terry Kee from the University of Leeds, England, one of the co-authors of the research paper.
"We're going back in time to test specific minerals such as those containing iron and nickel, which would have been common on the early Earth and could have led to biological metabolism," said Barge.
The researchers also tested material from little lab-grown "chimneys," simulating the huge structures that grow from the hydrothermal vents that line ocean floors. These "chemical gardens" are possible locations for pre-life chemical reactions.
When the team used material from the lab-grown chimneys in the fuel cells, electrical currents were detected. Barge said that this is a preliminary test, showing that the hydrothermal chimneys formed on early Earth can transfer electrons – and therefore, may drive some of the first energetic reactions leading to metabolism.
The experiments also showed that the fuel cells can be used to test other materials from our ancient Earth. And if life did arise on other planets, those conditions can be tested, too.
"We can just swap in an ocean and minerals that might have existed on early Mars," said Barge. "Since fuel cells are modular -- meaning, you can easily replace pieces with other pieces -- we can use these techniques to investigate any planet’s potential to kick-start life."
At JPL, fuel cells are not only for the study of life, but are also being developed for long-term human space travel. Hydrogen fuel cells can produce water, which can be recycled and used as fuel again. Researchers are experimenting with these advanced regenerative fuel cells, which are highly efficient and offer long-lasting power.
Thomas I. Valdez, who is developing regenerative fuel cells at JPL, said, "I think it is great that we can transition techniques used to study reactions in fuel cells to areas such as astrobiology."
Other authors of the paper are: Ivria J. Doloboff, Chung-Kuang Lin, Richard D. Kidd and Isik Kanik of the JPL Icy Worlds team; Joshua M. P. Hampton of the University of Leeds School of Chemistry, Mohammed Ismail and Mohamed Pourkashanian at the University of Leeds Centre for Fluid Dynamics; John Zeytounian of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and Marc M. Baum and John A. Moss of the Oak Crest Institute of Science, Pasadena.
JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena for NASA.
How Did Life Arise? Fuel Cells May Have Answers
How life arose from the toxic and inhospitable environment of our planet billions of years ago remains a deep mystery. Researchers have simulated the conditions of an early Earth in test tubes, even fashioning some of life's basic ingredients. But how those ingredients assembled into living cells, and how life was first able to generate energy, remain unknown.
A new study led by Laurie Barge of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., demonstrates a unique way to study the origins of life: fuel cells.
Fuel cells are found in specialized cars, planes and NASA's human spacecraft, such as the now-retired space shuttle. The cells are similar to batteries in generating electricity and power, but they require fuel, such as hydrogen gas. In the new study, the fuel cells are not used for power, but for testing chemical reactions thought to have led to the development of life.
"Something about Earth led to life, and we think one important factor was that the planet provides electrical energy at the seafloor," said Barge. "This energy could have kick-started life -- and could have sustained life after it arose. Now, we have a way of testing different materials and environments that could have helped life arise not just on Earth, but possibly on Mars, Europa and other places in the solar system."
Barge is a member of the JPL Icy Worlds team of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The team's paper appears online March 13 in the journal Astrobiology.
One of the basic functions of life as we know it is the ability to store and use energy. In cells, this is a form of metabolism and involves the transfer of electrons from one molecule to another. The process is at work in our own bodies, giving us energy.
Fuel cells are similar to biological cells in that electrons are also transferred to and from molecules. In both cases, this results in electricity and power. In order for a fuel cell to work, it needs fuel, such as hydrogen gas, along with electrodes and catalysts, which help transfer the electrons. Electrons are transferred from an electron donor (such as hydrogen) to an electron acceptor (such as oxygen), resulting in current. In your cells, metal-containing enzymes -- your biological catalysts -- transfer electrons and generate energy for life.
In the team’s experiments, the fuel cell electrodes and catalysts are made of primitive geological material thought to have existed on early Earth. If this material can help transfer electrons, the researchers will observe an electrical current. By testing different types of materials, these fuel cell experiments allow the scientists to narrow in on the chemistry that might have taken place when life first arose on Earth.
"What we are proposing here is to simulate energetic processes, which could bridge the gap between the geological processes of the early Earth and the emergence of biological life on this planet," said Terry Kee from the University of Leeds, England, one of the co-authors of the research paper.
"We're going back in time to test specific minerals such as those containing iron and nickel, which would have been common on the early Earth and could have led to biological metabolism," said Barge.
The researchers also tested material from little lab-grown "chimneys," simulating the huge structures that grow from the hydrothermal vents that line ocean floors. These "chemical gardens" are possible locations for pre-life chemical reactions.
When the team used material from the lab-grown chimneys in the fuel cells, electrical currents were detected. Barge said that this is a preliminary test, showing that the hydrothermal chimneys formed on early Earth can transfer electrons – and therefore, may drive some of the first energetic reactions leading to metabolism.
The experiments also showed that the fuel cells can be used to test other materials from our ancient Earth. And if life did arise on other planets, those conditions can be tested, too.
"We can just swap in an ocean and minerals that might have existed on early Mars," said Barge. "Since fuel cells are modular -- meaning, you can easily replace pieces with other pieces -- we can use these techniques to investigate any planet’s potential to kick-start life."
At JPL, fuel cells are not only for the study of life, but are also being developed for long-term human space travel. Hydrogen fuel cells can produce water, which can be recycled and used as fuel again. Researchers are experimenting with these advanced regenerative fuel cells, which are highly efficient and offer long-lasting power.
Thomas I. Valdez, who is developing regenerative fuel cells at JPL, said, "I think it is great that we can transition techniques used to study reactions in fuel cells to areas such as astrobiology."
Other authors of the paper are: Ivria J. Doloboff, Chung-Kuang Lin, Richard D. Kidd and Isik Kanik of the JPL Icy Worlds team; Joshua M. P. Hampton of the University of Leeds School of Chemistry, Mohammed Ismail and Mohamed Pourkashanian at the University of Leeds Centre for Fluid Dynamics; John Zeytounian of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles; and Marc M. Baum and John A. Moss of the Oak Crest Institute of Science, Pasadena.
JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena for NASA.
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