Steve McKnight, acting director of EERE’s AMMTO and IEDO, presented the Office’s year in review.
Radical innovation has characterized American manufacturing, driving economic growth and national security.
American manufacturing has always risen through periods of conflict, economic prosperity, and even global pandemics. The story tells how ingenuity led to new eras and how manufacturing has progressed to meet significant moments. Today, the extreme urgency of the global climate crisis marked the moment. But if history is any indication, manufacturing and the industrial sector, in general, will rise to this critical moment, and radical innovation will lead to a clean energy future for all.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is working to ensure that the manufacturing sector is prepared to meet the crisis. To achieve this, it needs to rapidly accelerate domestic production of clean energy technologies and significantly reduce carbon emissions across the industrial sector. DOE’s new Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) and Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) are focused on these goals.
DOE has built a strong network of partners in industry, academia, national laboratories, and other public agencies. It also has more federal investment in advanced manufacturing and industrial decarbonization. So much so that DOE has created two additional offices that work together to accelerate manufacturing innovation: the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) and the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC).
Accomplishments within the Office of Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies:
- AMMTO released three in-depth assessments exploring the challenges and opportunities for building U.S. supply chains for clean energy technologies. Including rare earth magnets for electric vehicles and wind power, energy-efficient semiconductors and power electronics, and platinum group metal catalysts for fuel cells and water electrolysis.
- By signing a pledge in September, the AMMTO received commitments from more than 20 companies and organizations to increase semiconductor energy efficiency 1,000-fold over the next two decades. Inaugural signatory partners of the EES2 commitment include Intel, Microsoft, Micron, Synopsys, and AMD, in addition to Semiconductor Research Corporation, Argonne National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.
- In collaboration with the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), AMMTO recently launched a $12 million funding opportunity announcement to support the extraction and conversion of lithium from geothermal brines for batteries for stationary storage and electric vehicles.
- AMMTO’s two-year Integrated Lab Entrepreneurship Program integrates start-up companies into national labs to move promising clean energy technologies from the lab to the factory floor. More than 100 start-ups have received $584 million in public and private funding and created more than 600 jobs.
Achievements within the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office:
- IEDO led the publication of DOE’s Roadmap for Industrial Decarbonization. This report identifies four crucial pathways to reduce industrial emissions:
- energy efficiency;
- industrial electrification;
- low-carbon fuels, feedstocks, and energy sources;
- carbon capture, utilization, and storage.
The roadmap also identifies five industrial sectors where decarbonization efforts could have the most significant impact:
- chemical manufacturing,
- petroleum refining,
- iron and steel,
- food and beverage,
- cement.
- The Industrial Heat Initiative, driven by IEDO, set the ambitious goal of developing cost-competitive solutions for industrial heat. With at least 85% lower greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. By 2023, IEDO will align priorities and investments with the targets in the Industrial Heat Shot.
- IEDO released a $70 million funding opportunity announcement to establish DOE’s 7th Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute. This new coalition of industrial, academic, and government partners will develop and scale technologies. This to electrify industrial process heating and reduce emissions across the industrial sector.
It can be of your interest: Tidal and stream power supported by DOE
