| SOLAR energy, wind power and other clean-energy programs would see big funding boosts under the fiscal 2011 budget that the administration of US President Barack Obama unveiled Monday.The US Department of Energy requested $302m for solar energy for the fiscal year that begins October 1, a significant hike over the $234m that DOE will spend on solar programs this year.Wind-energy programs would also see a significant increase, with DOE asking for $123m, compared to $84m this year.In televised remarks outlining his budget, Obama said the investments he seeks to make in clean-energy technologies ″continue to lay a new foundation for lasting growth.″ ″That's why we build on the largest investment in clean energy in history, as well as increase investment in scientific research, so that we are fostering the industries and jobs of the future right here in America.″Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, the Democratic chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, echoed that view.″This budget request is a powerful statement of the priority that President Obama is giving to energy, technological competitiveness and nuclear weapons security imperatives, despite the tough fiscal environment we find ourselves in,″ Bingaman said.″On most major programs in the department, the president's budget request basically gets it right.″ In justifying its request for $302m for solar-energy programs, DOE said its goal is to ″achieve cost parity for solar electricity by 2015.″ The US Department of the Interior is also playing a key role to advance solar energy by ″fast-tracking″ the permitting process for more than a dozen solar-energy projects on federal lands in the western US.For wind energy, DOE said its $123m budget request would be used to ″improve the reliability and affordability of land-based and offshore wind-energy systems.″ The Obama administration has been particularly interested in permitting a major wind farm in Nantucket Sound offshore Massachusetts, promising to make a final decision on the 425MW project by the end of April.DOE also requested $300m in 2011 for its so-called ARPA-E program, which is designed to pursue high-risk, high-reward research on potentially paradigm-shifting technologies to combat climate change and to reduce US dependence on oil, among other things.ARPA-E, short for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, received $400m under the economic stimulus bill that Congress passed last year, but lawmakers have never funded the program under the regular appropriations process.Former President George W. Bush refused to request any funding for APRA-E before leaving office, saying it would siphon money away from other DOE research programs.In a similar vein, DOE is also seeking nearly $200m more for basic energy science research in fiscal 2011.That would allow DOE to open additional ″Energy Innovation Hubs,″ which Energy Secretary Steven Chu (pictured) has said would be modeled on the private-sector Bell Labs that thrived decades ago.DOE also requested $50m for a new program dubbed Re-Energyse, which is designed to attract the best and brightest students, technicians, and young researchers into energy-technology careers.Still, not all clean-energy programs at DOE would see increases under the administration's fiscal 2011 budget request.Hydrogen-technology research programs, for example, would fall to $137m next year, compared with $183m that the initiatives received this year. |
