The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) selected 31 projects led by national laboratories, industry and academia to accelerate research, development and demonstration (RD&D) in domestic manufacturing.
With more than $61 million in federal funding, the selectees will drive innovation to advance the next generation materials and manufacturing and related energy technologies required to strengthen America’s economic competitiveness and move the U.S. towards a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
“These 31 projects will help advance cutting-edge manufacturing technology solutions vital to our nation’s clean energy future, while also fostering competitive, sustainable, and resilient manufacturing systems and supply chains to strengthen our nation’s manufacturing enterprise,” said Alejandro Moreno, Acting Assistant Secretary for EERE.
Projects were selected within the following topic areas:
Next Generation Materials and Manufacturing — 20 projects were selected in this topic area (supported in part by the Office of Electricity and EERE's Wind Energy and Hydrogen & Fuel Cells Technologies Offices), which focuses on RD&D for cost-effective manufacturing processes and novel materials with improved properties. Specific subtopics include increased conductivity metal-based material systems ($6.8 million), harsh environment materials ($15.8 million) and AI/machine learning for aerostructures ($5 million).
Secure and Sustainable Materials — Four projects were selected in this topic area ($10.8 million). The selected projects specifically address regional pilot-scale demonstrations of circular supply chains that include advancements in technologies such as innovative material recovery, end-of-life processing and recycling.
Energy Technology Manufacturing — Seven projects were selected in this topic area, which is co-funded by the Building Technologies Office and focuses on clean energy technology manufacturing innovation to improve performance and address technical barriers. Specific subtopics are the development, scale-up and demonstration of processing technologies to manufacture state-of-the-art cathode active materials (CAM) for domestic electric vehicle battery manufacturing ($17.6 million) and building dehumidification scale-up ($5 million).
In addition to the federal government’s funding of $61.07 million, there is a cost share of $17.53 million, for a total of $78.6 million available to the selectees.
