Government Grants for Alternative Energy Solar Systems
In his 2007 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush called for a 22% increase in federal grants for research and development of alternative energy. However, he was less enthusiastic about this goal when the issue of funding this research and development was raised.
The mixed signals originated from the fact the while the President was calling on more government backing for alternative energy solar and wind solutions, the NREL—the National Renewable Energy Laboratory located in Golden, Colorado—was laying off workers and contractors as a result of its reduced funding. However, shortly after the President’s speech, the Laboratory rehired a majority of its staff. The President gave a second speech at the NREL, in which he committed to providing the needed funding. Most polls conducted at the time (and is still true today) indicate almost unanimous public support for the federal funding of alternative energy solar research and development, using research grants, tax breaks, and other financial incentives.
The National Bioenergy Center (NBC) was established in October 2000 to support the science and technology goals of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Biomass Program. With its headquarters located at NREL, this virtual center unifies DOE’s efforts to advance technology for producing renewable transportation fuels from biomass. NREL is at the forefront of those efforts. The laboratory’s field researchers and staff scientists, in the words of Laboratory Director Dan Arvizu, “support critical market objectives to accelerate research from scientific innovations to market-viable alternative energy solar, wind and bio solutions. At the core of this strategic direction are NREL’s research and technology development areas. These areas span from understanding renewable resources for energy, to the conversion of these resources to renewable electricity and fuels, and ultimately to the use of renewable electricity and fuels in homes, commercial buildings, and vehicles.”
NREL’s Solar Energy Technologies Program performs research in two major solar energy technologies: Photovoltaic Research (using Solar Energy to produce electricity) and Solar Thermal Research (using Solar Energy to produce heat). It seeks to develop plans for integrating system engineering, which includes bringing alternative energy into buildings, electrical grids and delivery systems, and transportation infrastructures. The Laboratory is also set up for strategic development and analysis of alternative energy objectives through economic forces, market analysis and planning.
NREL also contains a Technology Transfer Office, which supports laboratory scientists and engineers to make a living from their expertise and the technologies they develop. In other words, bringing practical applications to the marketplace by licensing technologies to private companies.
NREL’s research and development staff and its facilities are recognized for their remarkable prowess by private industry, which is reflected in the hundreds of collaborative projects and licensed technologies that the Laboratory now has with both public and private partners.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is committed to renewed success in all of its research projects and continues to offer the “best and brightest” innovations to industry, laboratory research organizations, and educational institutions across the United States.
