Stimulus Funds Continue To Push Clean Energy Forward
Posted May 4, 2009 in Solving Global Warming
Over the weekend, the Department of Interior announced a new initiative funded through the stimulus that includes $41 million to "advance the nation's development and transmission of renewable energy on public lands." Other portions of the $300 million will be dedicated to regional renewables projects, energy efficiency investments as well as a host of regional initiatives and various land restoration projects. However, as transmission development for renewables expands, lets hope that we can continue to find better ways to plan the lines by informing the process and ensuring its done right. (btw, meetings on transmission continue in the senate this week)
Other announcements include the President Obama's April 27th speech announcing of a $400 million kick-start from stimulus funds for the creation of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) that provides funding for basic research on energy technologies, a $300 million department of energy funding announcement for the Clean Cities Program and the announcement of 46 new Energy Frontier Research Centers partially funded through the stimulus.
And of course all of this is in addition to renewable energy provisions launched in February as part of the stimulus bill.
Where does this leave the prospects for clean energy? Can we expect a bright future for renewables despite our economy's current woes? Its clear that some are feeling bullish; lets just hope that optimism is contagious.
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Comments
Kevin Bell — May 5 2009 03:15 AM
I just attended an all day seminar in San Francisco discussing the renewable energy component of the stimulus package. And folks, it's not pretty. Tens of billions of dollars are being rapidly pushed out the door in a series of apparently random grant and loan guarantee solicitations. The word from the DOE officials there, over and over, was that if they don't already know who you are, and if you aren't already prepared to immediately spend huge wads of money exactly how the randomly generated solicitation specifies, don't bother showing up.
It's an incredible gravy train if you happen to be the right large corporation in the right place at the right time with the right random energy thing to throw lots of free money at. As stimulus, it's conceivable that some fraction of this money won't just get poured down the same rathole that managed to lose the several hundred billion dollars wasted on AIG and Citibank. As an effective strategy for sustained, useful, or rational investments in renewable energy, forget about it.
Samir Succar — May 5 2009 11:18 AM
Kevin - thanks for the heads up. My sense is that the DOE is working as best they can to get funds out the door. Matt Rogers' new shop has a huge task ahead of them and there's no question they're not going to get all of it right. Your skepticism is certainly warranted and I think we should take them to task on using those funds as effectively as possible. Getting broad participation is going to be a challenge given the tight timeline that they're working under, but I agree that this is something to push for nevertheless. Greentech has a piece that covered the event you mentioned as well http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/stimulus-money-going-going-3881/