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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (73881)	5/7/2010 11:43:45 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 149317

Recovery Act Has Bolstered Clean Energy The DOE accounts for its spending of stimulus funding. By Kevin Bullis Friday, May 07, 2010 Over a year after the Recovery Act of 2009 was signed into law, the U.S. Department of Energy says that $32.5 billion of the $36.7 billion it was authorized to spend is "spoken for," and nearly 5,000 projects have been funded. The department has selected all but 1 percent of the proposals that will receive grants and contracts. So far, however, only $3.5 billion has actually been spent, and the money has only directly created 22,841 jobs. photo..good caption..Recovery power: The largest U.S. solar array, in Arcadia, FL, received a $44 million grant as part of the Recovery Act of 2009. Credit: Florida Power and Light This week, the DOE's senior advisor for Recovery Act implementation, Matt Rogers, provided an update on the department's progress in identifying projects that will receive funding. While much of the Recovery Act focused on funding for near-term recession relief, including tax relief for individuals and support for local and state governments, the funding allocated to the DOE was mainly for projects with longer term payoffs, including building infrastructure such as wind farms and battery factories and conducting research. Story continues below Rogers highlighted the battery industry as an area that needed investment, noting that while much of the technology was first developed in the United States, "we've allowed 99 percent of battery manufacturing to move over to Asia." Currently there are only three battery factories operating in the U.S., he says. Through the Recovery Act and related incentive programs, 30 battery and battery component factories are now being built. This will result in the capacity to build enough batteries for 500,000 electric vehicles a year, "whereas today we can hardly touch the topic," Rogers says. Meanwhile, the DOE is funding research projects that could increase the performance of batteries threefold to sixfold, while reducing costs by 90 percent or more. Rogers noted that today's batteries can store about 100 watt-hours per kilogram; research projects aim to increase that to as much as 600 watt-hours. He also said batteries cost at least $1,000 per kilowatt-hour (although automakers such as GM say that batteries are less than that now); the factories being constructed are supposed to cut this in half by 2012. Long-term research projects aim to reduce it to as little as $50 per kilowatt-hour by 2020 via new materials and battery designs. Mass-market electric vehicles with a range of around 80 miles will soon be on the market (although some more expensive electric cars already have a much greater range); the goal is to make practical, affordable electric vehicles with a range of 400 miles. [1] 2 technologyreview.com