Quotes from statement of Steven Chu Secretary of Energy before US Senate on March 5, 2009:
“…how we can better nurture and harness science to solve our energy and climate change problems. I have spent most of my career in research labs – as a student, as a researcher, and as a faculty member. I took the challenge of being Secretary of Energy in part for the chance to ensure that the Department of Energy Laboratories and our country’s universities will generate ideas that will help us address our energy challenges. I also strongly believe that the key to our prosperity in the 21st century lies in our ability to nurture our intellectual capital in science and engineering. Our previous investments in science led to the birth of the semiconductor, computer, and bio-technology industries that have added greatly to our economic prosperity. Now, we need similar breakthroughs on energy.
….We also need to refocus our scarce research dollars. …. to step up efforts to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers. The FY 2010 budget supports graduate fellowship programs that will train students in energy-related fields. I will also seek to build on DOE’s existing research strengths by attracting and retaining the most talented scientists. Focusing on Transformational Research. The second area that I want to discuss is the need to support transformational technology research. What do I mean by transformational technology? I mean technology that is game-changing, as opposed to merely incremental. For example, in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when AT&T Bell Laboratories was focused on extending the life of vacuum tubes, another much smaller research program was started to investigate a completely new device based on a revolutionary new advance in the understanding of the microscopic world: quantum physics. The result of this transformational research was the transistor, which transformed communications, allowed the computer industry to blossom, and changed the world forever. DOE must strive to be the modern version of the old Bell Labs in energy research. Because the payoffs from research in transformational technologies are both higher risk and longer term, government investment is critical and appropriate.
…We need to do more transformational research at DOE to bring a range of clean energy technologies to the point where the private sector can pick them up, including: 1. Gasoline and diesel-like biofuels generated from lumber waste, crop wastes, solid waste, and non-food crops; 2. Automobile batteries with two to three times the energy density that can survive 15 years of deep discharges; 3. Photovoltaic solar power that is five times cheaper than today’s technology; 4. Computer design tools for commercial and residential buildings that enable reductions in energy consumption of up to 80 percent with investments that will pay for themselves in less than 10 years; and 5. Large scale energy storage systems so that variable renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power can become base-load power generators. This is not a definitive list, or a hard set of technology goals, but it gives a sense of the types of technologies and benchmarks I think we should be aiming for. We will need transformational research to attain these types of goals. To make it happen, we will need to re-energize our national labs as centers of great science and innovation. At the same time, we need to seek innovation wherever it can be found – the new ARPA-E program will open up research funding to the best minds in the country, wherever they may be. I pledge to you we will have this program up and running as soon as possible. Broader, More Effective Collaboration: DOE also needs to foster better research collaboration, both internally and externally. My goal is nothing less than to build research networks within the Department, across the government, throughout the nation, and around the globe. We’ll better integrate national lab, university, and industry research. And we will seek partnerships with other nations. For example, increased international cooperation on carbon capture and storage technology could reduce both the cost and time of developing the range of pre- and post-combustion technologies needed to meet the climate challenge. … The Nation needs better technologies to fully meet our climate and energy challenges, and DOE can be a major contributor to this effort”.
The first Multi-national Task force for 100% renewable energy is definitely the right step in the right direction, but we need to do more.
