6. ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION
Science and innovation programmes
National laboratories
Based on the substantial investment the US government directed at scientific research during World War II, the United States currently has 17 national laboratories – under the authority of the DOE – that conduct leading research on scientific innovation in the energy space (DOE, 2019d). The national labs focus on large-scale RD&D efforts using a multidisciplinary approach with a goal to transform basic science into innovative applications and solutions. As part of these efforts, the national labs have state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, some of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. In this regard, the labs also attract the nation’s top scientific talent. The 17 energy labs are:
Ames Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Idaho National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
National Energy Technology Laboratory
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratories
Savannah River National Laboratory
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
Among their notable achievements, with funding from DOE, the national labs developed the advanced cathode technology that powers the Chevy Volt’s battery; reduced the losses that typically occur during transmission by removing the resistance to the flow of electricity using high-temperature superconducting technology; and created highefficiency airfoils that lowered the cost of wind power by more than 80% over the last three decades. The revolution in light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which provide significantly more efficiency compared with traditional light bulbs, was also developed in collaboration between industry and the national labs (DOE, 2019e).
The national labs also have a long history of collaboration with universities, including through joint research programmes, personnel exchanges and the use of scientific facilities.
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6. ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION
Loan Programs Office
The DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) is authorised to oversee over USD 70 billion of loans and loan guarantees to support the deployment of large-scale energy infrastructure projects. In this regard, LPO offers opportunities for project developers to access debt that financial markets might not have otherwise granted them. LPO manages its portfolio of loans and loan guarantees through a team of in-house financial, legal and technical experts (DOE, 2019f).
The loan programmes finance a range of technologies, in line with the government’s “allof the above” approach to energy development. The office has a staff of in-house financial, legal, technical and environmental experts. So far, LPO has granted over USD 30 billion in loans and loan guarantees to more than 30 projects. LPO finances projects within three programmes: the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, the Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee Program and the Title 17 Innovative Energy Loan Guarantee Program. The Title 17 programme was established under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and aims to support innovative clean energy projects through loan guarantees. Projects must meet certain criteria to qualify for Title 17 loan guarantees, including greenhouse gas abatement, new or significantly improved technologies, and a reasonable likelihood of repayment (DOE, 2019g).
Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy
Based on a 2005 recommendation by the National Academies, Congress in 2007 established the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), designed after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Under the purview of the DOE, ARPA-E advances early-stage, high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that would otherwise not attract private financing (DOE, 2019h). In this regard, it does not fund basic or incremental research. ARPA-E is structured to be institutionally independent and structurally flexible, which means it is able to disburse and withdraw funds from projects relatively quickly, in line with the short-term (three-year programmes) nature of funding that the agency was meant to support. In this regard, ARPA-E has a robust process for setting and tracking project milestones (ARPA-E, 2019a).
Since 2009, when ARPA-E first received funding, it has provided around USD 1.8 billion in RD&D funding to over 660 energy technology projects with transformational potential. Focus areas for projects include new wind turbine designs, transportation fuels made from bacteria and innovative energy storage solutions. A number of the projects supported by the agency have demonstrated success, with 71 having formed new companies, 109 partnering with other government agencies, and 136 projects raising over USD 2.6 billion in private-sector financing. The projects have also led to the issuance of 245 patents (ARPA-E, 2019b).
As part of its founding, Congress required an independent assessment of ARPA-E six years after it was operational, which the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) conducted in 2017. Although the NAS could not yet definitively conclude that any ARPA-E project was transformational to the energy space (which would require a decade or longer), it did find that the early-stage support helped companies overcome their most financially challenging early years, in line with the agency’s statutory objectives (National Academies Press, 2017).
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