Funding

The Energy Race: Will federal budget woes affect progress?

By Eileen De Guire / November 22, 2011

Thin film solar panels produced by General Electric’s PrimeStar in Arvada, Colo. Credit: Edelman; NREL. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, was in Colorado last week, and after months of reeling…

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With low-temp SOFC gains like this . . . why stop now?

By / November 18, 2011

Low-temperature SOFCs: (A) Functionally graded bismuth oxide (Electrolyte 1) / ceria (Electrolyte 2) can allow use of hydrocarbon fuels at the anode at reduced temperatures. (B) Estimation of power output…

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White House announces recent Materials Genome Initiative developments

By / November 15, 2011

The White House’s Cyrus Wadia, speaking above right with Penn State’s Zi-Kui Liu at the recent MS&T’11 meeting, and Tom Kalil revealed several new projects in support of the MGI.…

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Can the US afford to pull the plug on SOFC and SECA funding?

By / November 8, 2011

Credit: Wachsman et al.; Energy & Environmental Science. No. Will it anyway? Unfortunately, it looks that way, based on the DOE’s 2012 budget request (pdf), which hacks off 41 percent…

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The Solyndra effect—Fruity thinking on federal nuclear startup loan guarantees

By Eileen De Guire / November 8, 2011

Southern Company, a Georgia utility, is building a new nuclear power plant with the help of a federal loan guarantee. However, the Solyndra experience is making politicians skittish about extending…

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New graphene ‘hub’ and electronics discovery create excitement in UK

By / November 1, 2011

Noble laureates Novoselov and Geim, left, along with Nancy Rothwell, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, meet with UK Science Minister David Willetts and Osborne to discuss plans for…

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On Germany’s approach to engineering, science and stability

By / October 31, 2011

Sample of current EU unemployment rates. Source: Google Public Data Explorer. A story from the Guardian (UK) written by John Kampfer has some interesting thoughts about why Germany now seems…

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NSF releases more info on Materials Genome Initiative funding plans

By / October 28, 2011

NSF director Subra Suresh (above) reported during the MS&T11 plenary session that the next step in getting out information about MGI funding opportunities would come in the “Dear Colleague Letter.”…

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Ceramics and glass business news of the week

By / October 28, 2011

Here’s what we’re hearing (some info from news releases): Kyocera Supplies 2MW of modules for solar power plant in France Kyocera announced that is has supplied 8 solar modules for a…

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ARPA-E awards $37.3M for disruptive thermal storage innovations, materials

By / October 13, 2011

Abengoa, designer of novel concentrating solar power towers, is a participant in several new ARPA-E funded projects for storing thermal energy. Credit: Abengoa Last week Eileen reported on ARPA-E’s new…

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