Mega Funding for Fuels Research

June 30, 2007 – Vol.12 No.14

MEGA FUNDING FOR FUELS RESEARCH: NOT THE BIG NEWS OF THE WEEK.

It’s hard to imagine anyone spending the night outside a filling station waiting to buy his first tank of cellulosic ethanol.

In the same week that Apple began selling its iPhone to long waiting lines, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would spend hundreds of millions to continue research into ethanol made from poplar, corn stover or switchgrass along with research into related processes to make the stuff. Briefly put, the research will be looking for a breakthrough that would lead to lots of cheap ethanol at the pump.

Guess which news item got more coverage in the media.

US consumers, and others like them around the world, flock to new gizmos. With their passion for gizmos - and the ease at which they buy them - it seems likely that consumers, homeowners, drivers, etc. would leap on a device that would solve global warming, energize their homes on the cheap and relieve them from buying imported petroleum. If the news this week was that DOE was to hand out $375 million to Apple to solve the nation’s energy woes the effort would have made headlines for the weeks and weeks to come.

(I would be surprised that electric-car-owning Apple CEO Steve Jobs HASN’T thought about this: if not a world-saving clean energy device, a clean car for the masses. Think of all the loyal iPod, now iPhone users that would salivate at the idea.)

The $375 million for ethanol will to go new research centers at established research institutions in Tennessee, Wisconsin and California. States, universities and private companies have also pledged support for the multiyear project.

Don’t expect any results any time soon. Facilities need to be built, personnel hired, then work can begin.

DOE also recently announced $60 million in new funding opportunities in solar energy research and development as well as awarded $4 million in two wind turbine blade test facilities.

The round of research funding for ethanol is a reminder of how difficult it is, and has been, to replace fossil fuels with something else. Early on the Bush Administration was certain it would begin building a hydrogen economy.

The words “hydrogen economy” are rarely spoken now.

And those gizmos? With some excitement I recently bought a battery back-up large enough to provide power for nearly all my office equipment: computer, monitor, printer, phone, router, even a desktop lamp. According to Xantrex (the maker) it should provide power for up to eight hours, depending on what I’m running.

As I write this the power DID go out for a few seconds and the PowerSource worked as advertised. It kept things running without a flicker and switched back to grid power and battery recharging as soon as power came back on. That’s the kind of energy gizmo to get excited about: One that gives me a little freedom from the power grid. Now, I want one big enough to power the whole house.

For details on the DOE ethanol funding visit http://www.doe.gov/news/5172.htm