DOE sets aside $300M for autos, solar, carbon capture

The U.S. Department of Energy announced $300 million for the cleantech sector today, a mixture of allocations to companies and pots of money waiting to be accessed.

That biggest chunk, $240 million, was set aside to fund the development of high-efficiency commercial and passenger vehicles. Most of the money came from the department’s budget, while $110 million is stimulus funds.

The DOE called for companies to develop, integrate and demonstrate system-level technology to improve the efficiency of heavy-duty commercial trucks by 50 percent by limiting drag, reducing weight, and using a hybrid drivetrain. The rest of the funds go to companies developing advanced technology powertrains for gas- and diesel-powered light-duty vehicles.

On the solar front, the DOE also said it awarded $22 million to 24 advanced photovoltaic solar technology projects, which are expected to secure $50 million in cost sharing from private partners. The solar projects are expected to lower the manufacturing and product costs through automated assembly processes and semiconductor fabrication.

The largest of the awards were:

• $3 million to Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont to develop a manufacturing tool using atomic layer deposition to produce a flexible ultra moisture barrier film;
• $3 million to Niskayuna, NY-based General Electric to develop a thin film platform that boosts the efficiency of solar cells using down-shifting materials and to develop a system integrated, distributed PV architecture employing module-level and power conversion components to increase energy yield;
• $3 million to Fremont, Calif.-base Sierra Solar Power to accelerate development of a high-volume manufacturing silicon epitaxy growth system to enable commercial manufacturing of cells made from thin layers of monocrystalline silicon on cheap metallurgical-grade silicon wafers, reducing feedstock costs and capital equipment expenses;
• $3 million to San Jose, Calif.-based Silicon Genesis to accelerate development of a silicon wafering tool that reduces silicon waste by utilizing a cleaving process instead of the conventional wire saw process;
• $3 million to Gloucester, Mass.-based Varian Semiconductor to develop a manufacturing tool that continuously produces sheets of single-crystal film silicon with higher throughput and lower material costs than conventional manufacturing;
• $2.96 million Redwood City, Calif.-based XeroCoat to develop and commercialize a low-cost, glass antireflective coating that enables high transmission of light;
• $1.58 million to Allentown, Penn.-based Air Products and Chemicals to develop an advanced radio frequency plasma chemical vapor deposition process for thin film silicon solar cells;
• $1.2 million to St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M to develop a polymer barrier film at lower cost and higher transparency than current films (see 3M seeks new market for tape and film in energy sector).

The DOE also plans to grant $27 million to national or regional groups to develop training programs for solar installation.

And the DOE awarded $11.3 million for nine projects developing pre-combustion carbon-capture technologies that can reduce CO₂ emissions in future coal-based integrated gasification combined cycle power plants using high-temperature, high-pressure membranes; high-efficiency solvents; and solid sorbents.

The largest carbon-capture awards were:

• $2 million to Wheat Ridge, Colo.-based TDA Research to develop mesoporous carbon to remove CO₂ via physical absorption;
• $1.9 million to Menlo Park, Calif.-based SRI International to use solvents to capture high-pressure CO2 at lower solvent cost and with an efficient regeneration process (see U.S. allocates more funds to investigate cutting coal CO2);
• $1.9 million to Austin, Texas-based URS Group to combine modeling and experiments to tailor sorbents for optimum CO₂ capture.
• $1.2 million to Cortland, NY-based Pall to use its proprietary membrane fabrication technology to screen a large number of palladium alloys for use in membranes to separate hydrogen from synthesis gas mixtures.
• $1 million to Des Plaines, Ill.-based Gas Technology Institute to combine an engineered plastic contactor with a solvent to achieve up to 80 percent capital cost reduction in CO₂ capture.

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