Carbon capture funding up, while hydrogen funding decreases

A couple of weeks ago Chu announced that $2.4 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used to expand and accelerate the commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Of that, $800 million will be used to expand DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative , which provides government co-financing for new coal technologies that can help utilities cut sulfur, nitrogen, and mercury pollutants from power plants.

Most of the rest, $1.52 billion, will pay for a two-part competitive solicitation for large-scale CCS from industrial sources, such as cement plants, chemical plants, refineries, and steel and aluminum plants. The second part of that competition will support innovative concepts for beneficial CO2 reuse and CO2 capture from the atmosphere. In addition, two existing industrial and innovative reuse projects, previously selected via competitive solicitations, will be expanded to accelerate scale-up and field testing.

Hydrogen program deflates

For all of the big increases the Obama administration is providing for clean energy R&D, some critics are questioning its decision to slash funding for research and development of hydrogen fuel cells .

In its budget proposal for fiscal year 2010 , DOE proposed to cut $101 million, or 59%, for fuel cell R&D, saying it was refocusing on alternative-fuel transportation technologies that could provide a more near-term impact. Some nations, including Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Japan, already have “hydrogen highways” in place where those few hydrogen-fueled cars that exist can fill up their tanks along the way says Scott Doggett of Edmunds.com . Canada has committed to putting the fueling infrastructure in place along a stretch of roadway from Vancouver to Whistler, BC, site of next year’s winter Olympics.

David Kramer