Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: June 18, 2008

DOE to Award $30 Million for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Demonstrations Chrysler to Begin Delivering Hybrid SUVs in August Honda Begins Production of the FCX Clarity Fuel Cell Vehicle BLM and Forest Service Consider Large-Scale Geothermal Leasing San Francisco Launches Nation’s Largest Municipal Solar Incentive More Studies Say Biofuels Have a Minor Impact on Food Costs Global Oil Production Fell by 0.2% in 2007 DOE to Award $30 Million for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Demonstrations DOE has selected three cost-shared projects to develop and demonstrate cost-competitive plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) that are capable of traveling up to 40 miles without recharging. DOE announced last week that General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, and the General Electric Company (in a team with Chrysler LLC) will receive up to $30 million in funding over the next 3 years, subject to congressional appropriations. PHEVs are hybrid vehicles that can be driven in electric-only or hybrid modes and recharged from a standard electric outlet, and a 40-mile all-electric range would encompass most daily roundtrip commutes, satisfying 70% of the average daily travel in the United States without the use of gasoline. The three projects will aim to develop PHEVs that can be mass […]

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: June 26, 2008

DOE Offers $90 Million for Enhanced Geothermal Systems Forty Teams Compete in Solar Boat Race in the Netherlands New Biodiesel Standard Allows Automaker Approval of 20% Blends DOE to Invest $1.3 Billion in Carbon Capture and Storage DOE Offers $90 Million for Enhanced Geothermal Systems DOE issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) last week for the research, development, and demonstration of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), an advanced geothermal technology that drills deep wells into hot rocks, fractures them, and circulates a fluid through the fractures to extract heat. EGS technologies can be used to create new geothermal reservoirs or to stimulate existing geothermal reservoirs that are underperforming. The FOA offers up to $90 million over four years, of which $40 million will go toward research and development (R&D) projects for the technologies needed to commercialize EGS and $50 million will go toward demonstration projects that stimulate existing unproductive geothermal reservoirs. The R&D projects will target the technologies needed to create reservoirs at temperatures up to 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit) and depths as great as 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). They will address specific needs identified in a recent DOE report, "An Evaluation of Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technology." According to […]

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