The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science has announced $264 million in funding for 29 projects to develop clean energy solutions that will pave the way to achieving a net-zero-carbon economy by 2050. This funding is part of DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative, an effort designed to accelerate breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions within the decade.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will play a pivotal role in five of these 29 projects. DOE awarded NREL funding to lead two Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs), each of which received a total of $19 million—initiatives that will support multi-institutional, multidisciplinary teams in addressing applied research challenges using fundamental science—out of the 11 total awarded by DOE. NREL’s two EERCs focus on floating offshore wind modeling and degradation in electrothermal long-duration energy storage. NREL is also a subaward winner on three university-led Science Foundations for Energy Earthshots.
“We are delighted to be an important part of the new Energy Earthshots program in the Office of Science,” said Bill Tumas, NREL Associate Laboratory Director for Materials, Chemical, and Computational Science and NREL’s Basic Energy Sciences point of contact. “Our significant engagement reflects our commitment and contributions to use-inspired basic research by addressing key science questions and technological challenges through fundamental science in areas where we also have substantial strength in applied research.”