DOE to dispense $43M of support to 23 clean energy, grid reliability projects
A total of 23 research projects from across 19 states will split $43 million worth of support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to improve energy planning, increase grid resilience and restore power following disasters.
These cooperative efforts, which will see researchers create and share tools, technologies, methods, and best practices related to clean energy installations and improved grid infrastructure, can be split into two groups. The bulk of projects – 20 in total – will collectively be called RACER and focus on resilience to disruptions from extreme weather and other disasters. The remaining three will operate under the Energyshed funding program and tackle community tools for the evaluation and best use of local energy resources.
The RACER projects, or Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience, include work at institutions like the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where researchers are developing the foundations to increase heat resilience among vulnerable populations, Navajo Technical University, with research dedicated to an energy decision support tool for the Navajo Nation, and Wayne State University, where researchers will work with community members to craft an open-source, open-access distributed energy resource planning tool for energy and water resilience enhancement in urban areas.
As for Energyshed, while all three projects will focus on community empowerment surrounding locally generated energy, each research effort will approach this in different ways. A the University of Vermont, for example, researchers seek to identify the energy demand, supply, and other priority needs of three rural areas of the state to create a tool to help local leaders make better informed decisions regarding their energy transition. Launch Alaska will use its share of funds to streamline existing tools and use them to gain consensus for three large-scale local energy projects with community consent, ultimately increasing access to renewable energy and lowering energy costs. Lastly, the Georgia Institute of Technology is eying the metropolitan energy planning process and will evaluate the social, economic, equity, and technical impacts of energy scenarios within the Atlanta area.
“Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to giving local communities the tools to understand and make informed decisions about their own energy supply and needs,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “These critical projects will help deliver reliable, affordable energy to every pocket of America—strengthening the safety and resiliency of communities across the nation and improving the quality of life for Americans everywhere.”
Climate change is making the focus on such new lines of thought ever more important. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information, the United States endured 15 climate disaster events this year alone, with losses exceeding $1 billion – and over the wider years, these events have cost the nation more than $30 billion, not to mention lives lost.
