Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, Infrastructure are Big Gainers in DoE's 2004 EERE Budget Request
WASHINGTON, DC - Compared to what the Bush administration asked for last year, hydrogen, fuel cells and infrastructure technologies are the hands-down winners in the massive realignment in the fiscal year 2004 budget request for the Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
The grand total request for this category alone is $165.5 million, up 69.9% over last year's request of $97.4 million. Additionally, the request for FreedomCAR and vehicle technologies is $157.6 million, but with a much smaller percentage increase - 2.6% - over last year's $153.6 million.
EERE's losers include Industrial Technologies, down 29.6% to $64.4 million, and Biomass, cut 28.5% to $78.6 million.
Overall, the EERE budget request was up only marginally by .1%, from last year's 1.319 billion to now $1.320 billion, a fraction of the total DoE budget request of $21.9 billion, according to the 35-page EERE budget summary.
The request, released in early February, amplified President Bush's State-of-the-Union message request in late January (H&FCL Feb. 03), reinforced by another speech a week later (See story p. 1), in which he called for an additional $1.2 billion over five years for hydrogen energy and hydrogen-powered cars in a new initiative originally called FreedomFUEL as companion to the 2002 FreedomCAR program. That label was changed subsequently to the less grand Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, apparently after somebody discovered that the phrase is already registered commercially for some products, including a gasoline additive sold by Amway, according to a Feb. 14 AP story.
Codes & Standards, Storage to Get More Money
Several remarkable increases are included in the $165.5 hydrogen budget request, which includes funding from the Interior Department (all fuel cell activities under the request) and other agencies (All hydrogen production, delivery and storage work will continue under DoE's Energy and Water Development Appropriation). The biggest relative increase is in Safety, Codes & Standards and Utilization, which almost quadrupled to $16 million for FY 04 from the previous request of $4.8 million. At $30 million, Storage represents the largest single item, almost three times the amount of $11.3 million requested last year. Production and Delivery requests more than doubled, from $11.8 million last year to $23 million.
In fuel cell technology programs to be funded by the Interior Department, Technical Validation almost quadrupled, from $1.8 million to $15 million. The request for stack component development r&d almost doubled, from $14.9 million last year to $28 million for FY 04. Interestingly, the request for fuel processor r&d went down, from last year's $25.3 million to $19 million.
In addition to expanded hydrogen production and delivery funding, other activities will include continued development hydrogen storage r&d of solid-state materials to meet potential 2010 storage targets and to identify and initiate r&d of innovative chemistries and novel materials with the potential to achieve 2015 storage targets (H&FCL Nov. 02).
Go/No Go Decision for Onboard Fuel Processors
In fuel cells, the systems cost analysis to track progress towards the 2015 goal of $30/kW will be updated, and key systems components such as sensor and compressor/expander technology will be developed. Fuel processor r&d will make a major go/no go decision, focusing on the feasibility of on-board fuel processors to achieve the established start-up target of less than half a minute. If r&d does not show a clear path to meet that target, a "major change in research direction will be implemented."
Another gainer was the National Climate Change Technology Initiative, essentially an effort to reduce carbon content in fuels, with a request for $24.5 million, up 22.5% over last year's request. Solar energy was up marginally to $79.7 million from last year's request for $79.6 million. Wind and hydropower were down 4.7% to $49.1 million, and the request for geothermal technologies was cut 3.8% to $25 million.
A separate summary and breakdown of the 2004 budget proposals, prepared by the Washington, DC-based Breakthrough Technologies Institute/Fuel Cells 2000, shows that vehicle-related r&d requests for fuel cells was up more than 50%, $77.5 million requested for FY 2004 compared to last year's $49.9 million. Hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles funding quadrupled from $25 million last year to $104.2 million this year.
Also in the hydrogen program, the nuclear hydrogen initiative is to get $4 million this year from zero last year. And hydrogen extraction from coal and gas is to be funded at $11.5 million compared to $3 million last year. .
Fuel cell power generation focuses increasingly on advanced research, meaning small SOFC systems, with $7 million more requested than last year. Systems work and Vision 21 hybrids were cut back, and the entire program was reduced $2.5 million from last year to $47 million.
Contact: EERE budget summary, eere.energy.gov |
