Building & Design

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu yesterday made his pitch for more support for energy-related research as the new administration prepares for its first budget.

Energy research is lagging behind other areas, he said. While overall R&D investment is around 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), the energy sector represents only about one-tenth of that.

Resources should also be directed toward transformation research, he added.

“What do I mean by transformational technology? I mean technology that is game-changing, as opposed to merely incremental,” he told the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Chu highlighted biofuels generated from waste and non-food crops, batteries for cars, cheap photovoltics, large-scale energy storage systems to use with wind or solar power, and design tools that enable buildings to radically cut energy consumption.

“This is not a definitive list, or a hard set of technology goals, but it gives a sense of the types of technologies and benchmarks I think we should be aiming for,” he said.

To achieve these aims, the country’s national labs need to be revitalised as centres of research and innovation.

“We already have ample technology to make significant, near-term progress toward our energy and climate change goals. The most important of these [being] energy efficiency,” he said.

But more radical breakthroughs will be needed in the long-term to transform the country’s energy supply and security, Chu concluded.

For further information:
www.energy.gov/
www.energy.gov/news2009/6964.htm