Even in Trump era, green energy innovation is sparking, not sputtering
| Washington
Eric Wachsman thinks he might have an answer to one of the great challenges that鈥檚 hindering the rise of electric vehicles: building better batteries.
The need is clear enough. The University of Maryland scientist knows that 鈥渞ange anxiety鈥� has been one of the sticking points for consumers. 鈥淲e want more and more energy out of every battery鈥� he says.
But Professor Wachsman鈥檚 big idea 鈥� using a solid ceramic rather than flammable liquids inside the battery 鈥� won鈥檛 show up in electric vehicles anytime soon. Even when a technology works, proving its commercial viability, refining it, and attracting private investment to scale up production takes time and effort.
Wachsman鈥檚 project, part of a federal program to stimulate energy research, symbolizes some of the difficult realities as nations seek to address climate change by moving rapidly toward a clean-energy economy. Breakthroughs in technology are both vital and possible, but they require upfront patience before any big payoff 鈥嬧�嬧�� a patience that private-sector investors typically don鈥檛 have.
Experts say the good news is that clean-energy research in the US is continuing, and often with federal funding, despite President Trump鈥檚 avowed preference for coal over renewables. But some also say the current level of energy research remains small relative to the need.
鈥淐learly, we need to deploy lots of [technologies] that are already commercialized in greater and greater numbers鈥�. We also need innovation, across the whole spectrum of low-carbon and zero-carbon technologies,鈥� says Karl Hausker, an energy expert at the World Resources Institute in Washington. 鈥淲e're making some good progress. But we need to step it up.鈥�
When the Republican-led Congress passed its omnibus spending bill in March, it ignored Mr. Trump鈥檚 call to end some energy programs, notably the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, known as ARPA-E. The agency is a kind of skunk works for energy innovation, embedded into the massive Department of Energy based on legislation passed in 2007.
The Trump administration has also been busy scaling back Obama-era plans to reduce auto and utility emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say are warming Earth鈥檚 climate.
But Dr. Hausker says that on various fronts, from Congress to corporate and state- or local-government actions, the push toward a cleaner economy is continuing.
鈥淭he outpouring of commitments ... is really remarkable,鈥� he says. These entities 鈥渁re going to maintain a lot of the momentum.鈥�
Meeting the goal
Climate scientists have widely agreed on the urgency of a daunting objective, to hold human-caused warming of Earth鈥檚 climate to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. That in turn, points Hausker and other energy experts toward the goal of by 2050.
That means a lot of innovation would be welcome. Achieving climate-action targets by mid-century will hinge on improved energy efficiency, not just on the increasing the replacement of fossil fuels with cleaner sources of electricity, heat, and power.
At ARPA-E鈥檚 annual summit in March, the atmosphere was one of persistence. Doubts may still hang over the agency's future, but Congress actually increased its funding for 2018, and projects are continuing.聽And new ideas are being pitched to potential innovators, such as whether outworn oil wells can be converted to generate steam-based geothermal energy deep underground.
鈥淗enry Ford once said about the automobile that if you鈥檇 asked people at the time what they wanted, most of them would have said they wanted a faster horse. That鈥檚 exactly why ARPA-E is so very important today,鈥� Norm Augustine, a former aerospace CEO who helped inspire the agency鈥檚 launch, told a crowd at the event. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 needed are fresh approaches to the challenges we face.鈥�
Mr. Augustine said it looks like advances in an array of energy fields, not just wind and solar, will be needed to meet future energy and environmental needs.
From wave-power to better solar
The dozens of exhibitors in the summit鈥檚 showroom, at a Washington convention center overlooking the Potomac River, ranged from nuclear and ocean-wave power to improved gasoline engines for cars. But they all have something in common: As ARPA-E award recipients, they鈥檙e expected to be laser-focused on using their grants to move a potentially viable product toward the marketplace.
Some of the projects push technological frontiers.
The Palo Alto Research Center, a Xerox company, is working with Sandia National Laboratories to develop a that could dramatically improve solar panels.
Other projects are more mundane, but if successful they could be equally far-reaching. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland are working on data-gathering software that would make it much simpler to provide accurate advice to businesses on of their buildings.
The federal seed money is aimed at filling a gap that the private sector generally doesn鈥檛: the difficult period of applied research, when the science is proven but the prototype is not yet built. Energy expert Varun Sivaram puts it this way in his new book on solar power: 鈥淎chieving successful demonstrations is absolutely crucial to bring down the risks perceived by private investors and firms.鈥�
That鈥檚 why Dr. Sivaram differs with the view that government-funded research can be limited to basic science.
Can US stay ahead?
Other nations are also investing in energy research, which raises the prospect that US leadership in this area 鈥� and the jobs that can go with it 鈥� is far from guaranteed.
Wachsman, who heads the University of Maryland Energy Research Center, says he鈥檚 hopeful that he and his colleagues will play a role in tackling the threat of climate change.
鈥淓ven back in high school I was involved with and interested in energy,鈥� he says. Partly that grew out of concern for the environment, but also 鈥淚 was in high school during the first oil crisis, when people actually had to [wait] in line for gasoline.鈥�
As a self-professed car nut, he felt America shouldn鈥檛 be dependent on other countries for its energy.
Now he and his colleagues 鈥� other professors, some of his students, the first employee at a start-up company 鈥� are on the hunt for funds to launch their first product: a solid for aerospace or defense applications. That鈥檚 a first step toward bringing safer, lighter, and cheaper batteries to the automotive sector.
鈥淲e are on a path to do that,鈥� he says, adding that it shows how programs such as ARPA-E are 鈥渁 critical aspect of what we need to do to be competitive as an energy industry.鈥�
