Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
power plants. DOE is exploring thin-film technologies to reduce the
manufacturing costs of photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight into electricity.
Similarly, DOE's solar heating and lighting R and D program is developing
technologies that use sunlight for various thermal applications, particularly space
heating and cooling. DOE is also working with industry and states to develop
utility-size solar power plants to convert the sun's energy into high temperature
heat that is used to generate electricity.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, DOE's fossil energy R and D provided funding
through the Clean Coal Technology Program to demonstrate technologies for
reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. DOE also has focused on
developing and demonstrating advanced integrated gasification combined cycle
(IGCC) technologies. More recently, DOE proposed a $1 billion advanced coal-
based power plant R and D project called FutureGen—cost-shared between DOE
(76 percent) and industry (24 percent)—which will demonstrate how IGCC
technology can both reduce harmful emissions and improve efficiency by
integrating IGCC with carbon capture and sequestration technologies for the long-
term storage of carbon dioxide. According to DOE, FutureGen is designed to be
the first “zero-emissions” coal-based power plant and is expected to be
operational by 2015.
Beginning in fiscal year 1999, DOE's nuclear energy R and D program
shifted from improving safety and efficiency of nuclear power reactors to
developing advanced reactor technologies by focusing on (1) the Nuclear Power
2010 initiative in an effort to stimulate electric power companies to construct and
operate new reactors; (2) the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, or GNEP, to
develop and demonstrate technologies for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel that
could recover the fuel for reuse, reduce radioactive waste, and minimize
proliferation threats; and (3) the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative,
or Gen IV, to develop new fourth generation advanced reactor technologies
intended to reduce disposal requirements and manufacture hydrogen by about
2020 to 2030.
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Advanced renewable, fossil, and nuclear energy technologies all face key
challenges to their deployment into the market. The primary renewable energy
technologies with the potential to substantially expand their existing production