EXPO 2020: New Frontiers in Clean Energy Research and Development

2020 RENEWABLE ENERGY & ENERGY EFFICIENCY EXPO Panel 1: Training a 21st Century Clean Energy Workforce Panel 2: Macro Benefits of Microgrids Panel 3: Advancing Climate Solutions Through Environmental Justice Panel 4: Efficient Buildings as Energy Grid Resources Panel 5: Sustainable Transportation Panel 6: New Frontiers in Clean Energy Research & Development

On July 30, 2020, the 23rd Annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum brought together 25 businesses, trade associations, and government agencies to showcase clean energy industries. The bipartisan House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucuses served as the EXPO's honorary co-hosts, and the event was held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sixth and last panel of the day, "New Frontiers in Clean Energy Research and Development," looked at some of the many exciting new clean energy technologies and strategies currently in development and prototype stages. This panel’s four speakers discussed their experiences with distinct pieces of the clean energy sector: nuclear power, public-private partnerships, hydrogen-fueled automobiles, and hydropower. A recurring theme in this panel was that these technologies have benefits not only for the environment but also for business efficiency and job creation.

U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who is the Co-Chair of the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, provided prerecorded introductory remarks.

View the full panel video above, or read the highlights below.

Group 6—New Frontiers in Clean Energy Research and Development

Idaho National Laboratory Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) California Fuel Cell Partnership National Hydropower Association (NHA)

Introductory Remarks [prerecorded]: U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (Idaho) Shannon M. Bragg-Sitton, Ph.D., National Technical Director, Integrated Energy Systems, Idaho National Laboratory Lisa Jacobson, President, Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) Bill Elrick, Executive Director, California Fuel Cell Partnership Dennis Cakert, Manager of Regulatory Affairs and Markets Policy, National Hydropower Association (NHA)

HIGHLIGHTS

Shannon M. Bragg-Sitton, Ph.D., National Technical Director, Integrated Energy Systems, Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

• The Idaho National Laboratory (INL), National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and National Energy Technology Laboratory are working together to identify systems that can coordinate nuclear, renewables, and fossil fuels with carbon capture and utilization, to best serve energy needs while conserving energy.
• 55 percent of non-emitting electricity comes from nuclear energy (even though nuclear energy makes up under 20 percent of total electricity generated in the United States).
• Studies from MIT and nonprofits show that achieving emission reduction goals is much more cost effective if nuclear energy is included.
• Most nuclear energy systems in the United States (large-scale light water reactors producing a gigawatt of electricity for each plant) operate as base load supply, meaning they do not change their power output quickly. But with the increase in renewable energy being used, they are increasingly being called on to operate flexibly. Here are some good options for how to do this:
  • Deployment flexibility – Commercial nuclear energy is rapidly becoming available in a variety of sizes. Smaller systems dramatically reduce the footprint of energy systems for smaller municipalities and industrial sites. Small modular reactors (60-300 megawatts) are expected to be deployed in the mid to late 2020s, and microreactors (100 kilowatts to a few megawatts) are expected to be demonstrated even earlier by the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy (DOE), and private industry.
  • Product flexibility – 50 different companies are pursuing advanced reactor designs that operate at high temperatures, making them more suitable for industrial heat applications such as hydrogen or chemical production. We expect these systems to be demonstrated by 2025.
• Integrated systems are being built today. DOE is currently supporting two industry demonstrations, which will begin operating within the next two years, to produce hydrogen via a facility located on the site of an active nuclear power plant. These, along with other similar demonstrations in Minnesota and Arizona, will lead the way to greenfield installations of integrated, co-located energy systems that incorporate advanced reactor technologies.
• INL’s partnerships extend to industry—upstream generators such as nuclear utilities and advanced reactor developers, and downstream energy users such as chemical plants, that are increasingly demanding that their electricity supply come from non-emitting sources.

 

Lisa Jacobson, President, Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE)

• The Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) focuses on public-private partnership opportunities and opportunities for sustainable energy deployment.
• To meet the challenge of climate change and increase resilience, we need technologies not commercially available today; BCSE’s members identify those technologies and make them work for consumers.
• Some technologies are still struggling to be commercially viable even though they’ve been proven. This is where government-supported demonstrations and deployment initiatives can really help, filling gaps that the private sector couldn’t fill alone.
• Hopefully, the American Energy Innovation Act (S.2089) can be enacted during this Congress. It has broad bipartisan support, and the House of Representatives is already working to enact many bills in this Act.
• Business community engagement in the refinement of research development and deployment policies is critical. BCSE works with its members to talk to the DOE, other government agencies, and Congress.
• It is important to not only talk about benefits but to demonstrate with facts. The Sustainable Energy in America Factbook is a series of publications launched in 2010, commissioned by the BCSE and independently authored by BloombergNEF (formerly Bloomberg New Energy Finance). It highlights the benefits of targeted and long-standing support for research development and deployment by tracking technologies from early development stages through implementation.

 

Bill Elrick, Executive Director, California Fuel Cell Partnership

• The California Fuel Cell Partnership is a public-private partnership of government agencies, automakers, energy providers, technology companies, and national labs with the common goal of making fuel cell vehicle technology into a fully sustainable market opportunity.
• The Partnership published a tipping point document which lays out strategies to accomplish a 2030 vision for the establishment of 1,000 hydrogen stations in California that could support the first million fuel cell vehicles. That will be an exciting point to get to because it would mean that the technology has become demand-driven, with competitive costs to everything else on the market.
• The partnership is starting to expand out of state. It’s an exciting time to be part of this market, as there is global momentum in hydrogen. Many of the 18 national hydrogen programs have started to pivot to include the economic opportunity and business case, which will allow fuel cell technology to not be reliant on subsidies.

 

Dennis Cakert, Manager of Regulatory Affairs and Markets Policy, National Hydropower Association (NHA)

• Non-powered dams do not produce electricity, and there are 80,000 of them in the United States (compared to only 2,500 dams that produce electricity). Many non-powered dams have the potential to be clean energy resources by adding power generation to them.
  • Most non-powered dams that have high power potential are in the Mississippi River Basin (Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas). Interestingly, this is an area that is heavily dependent on fossil fuels—so there is a huge opportunity to transition fossil fuel usage and jobs over to hydropower.
  • The conversion of non-powered dams into powered ones is a proven technology. American Municipal Power produced over 100 megawatts of power over the last decade by adding power generation to a few non-powered dams on the Ohio River. The Red Rock hydroelectric facility in Iowa is the newest such project and launches this August.
• Pump storage hydropower is essentially a big water battery, with an uphill and a downhill reservoir. It pumps water uphill for storage or generates power by releasing it downhill.
  • Mostly built in the 1960s-1980s to provide flexibility to nuclear facilities, they are increasingly being used to smooth out wind and solar generation. They’re very durable, and every pump storage built is still operating—some have been for over 50 years.
  • After more than 30 years of stagnation, three new pump storage projects (in Montana, Oregon, and California) are shovel-ready, with a combined 2,000 megawatts of storage. Their construction could create hundreds of jobs in remote, rural areas. Finance is currently the only barrier to them being constructed. There are also preliminary permits for such projects in Virginia, Washington, and Idaho.
• Marine energy converts waves and tides into energy. There are no real commercially deployable facilities yet, but a demo project is about to happen in Hawaii. Research is happening in Oregon, Hawaii, North Carolina, and Florida.

 

Q&A

 

How can we ensure that clean energy R&D activities and the subsequent transition to lower-emitting sources of energy will not perpetuate pre-existing winners and losers? Do you have thoughts about how research and development could actually decrease existing burdens on frontline or disadvantaged communities?

Bragg-Sitton: When we evaluate the goals of energy systems, it opens opportunities to address potential solutions for communities of all sizes and economic classes. Microgrids might revitalize industry in remote regions, for example.

Jacobson: Let’s start by having these important conversations with Congress. It would bring new voices to the table and improve outcomes. We also need to think about this from an education perspective, engaging local communities and the future clean energy workforce, especially as we partner with universities and community colleges.

Elrick: Since we’re replacing traditional fuel pumps with hydrogen stations, people get to keep their jobs, so we facilitate a just transition. We can achieve both environmental and economic objectives at once. We’re also seeing environmental justice surfacing in training programs that are starting to become more integrated and thought-through.

Cakert: Water doesn’t discriminate: it flows downward. So, the first thing I think about in terms of environmental justice is dam safety and preventing dam failures. We need to ensure these energy resources are safe for communities downstream.

 

We wanted to look at technologies that have tremendous potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but that’s only one part of the story. What are some other co-benefits of your technologies that people may not be aware of?

Bragg-Sitton: One main motivator is increasing reliability and resilience by bringing energy sources to regions that don’t traditionally have them readily available. For instance, Alaska relies on periodic shipments of diesel for its winter heating. Another aspect is revitalizing manufacturing industries in a green way. Let’s use hydrogen in steel manufacturing, instead of coal, as it can reduce emissions by 90 percent relative to standard processes.

Jacobson: The reduced cost and increased comfort of energy efficiency at home are very visible co-benefits currently, since many more people have been working from home recently.

Elrick: I would echo the comments on versatility and resilience. One co-benefit of hydrogen is the market-driven economic opportunity it provides. There’s a business case around the hydrogen supply chain. Cost-competitive renewable hydrogen only seems to be 5-10 years away.

 

What could R&D advances in your areas mean for the clean energy workforce in the future?

Cakert: A lot of potential hydropower growth comes in regions that already heavily use fossil fuels, so development of hydropower facilities is a good option for job preservation. Also, they are capital-intensive projects that require hundreds of people so they bring lots of jobs.

Bragg-Sitton: Nuclear energy systems, particularly those bringing in industry and other similar applications, create high-paying, highly-skilled jobs. Also, people are looking into repurposing decommissioned coal sites and retraining existing workforces to operate these systems, shifting people into an exciting clean energy future.

Elrick: Hydrogen in transportation is ripe with operation opportunity. This is the first retail application where the average person will be in contact with hydrogen, and that implies a huge amount of related jobs.

Jacobson: The clean energy industries now make up over half of total energy sector jobs. The federal government has a strong role to play, sending a signal to the public about what is important and what is coming down the pike, and universities and others will pay attention.

 

Compiled by Tim Slattery