DOE research institutes face uncertain future

The fates of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy and five Department of Energy–funded manufacturing research centers appear to be in the hands of a House–Senate conference committee. But a threatened funding cutoff for several DOE energy research hubs, covering topics ranging from artificial photosynthesis to desalination, was averted by the full House just before it passed the fiscal year 2018 appropriations bill for DOE on 26 July.

An amendment sponsored by Representative Mark Takano (D-CA) on the House floor restored funding for the hubs, which are supported by DOE’s offices of Science, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and Nuclear Energy. The House-passed bill, however, would eliminate funding for ARPA–E , which provides cost-shared grants for the development of high-risk clean-energy technologies. The legislation also would terminate the clean-energy manufacturing institutes as part of a 47% reduction in funding for EERE next year, to $1.1 billion. In May President Trump had proposed a more drastic reduction, requesting just $636 million for EERE in his FY 2018 budget plan .

The Senate version of the DOE funding bill approved by the Appropriations Committee on 20 July is far more favorable to the programs targeted by the House. The Senate bill would provide its highest level ever, $330 million, for ARPA–E; trim EERE funding by 7%; and continue support for the hubs and all but one of the clean-energy manufacturing institutes.

The four hubs restored by Takano’s amendment and their funding in FY 2017 are as follows:

• The Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis headed by Caltech, funded at $15 million.
• The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research at Argonne National Laboratory, funded at $24 million.
• The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, funded at $24 million.
• The Critical Materials Institute at Ames Laboratory, funded at $25 million.

A fifth hub, focusing on energy-efficient desalination, received initial funding of $20 million this year but has yet to be established.

The major EERE cuts approved by the House would reverse the spending decisions that Congress made just two months ago , when it appropriated $2.1 billion for EERE for FY 2017 and $306 million for ARPA–E. Signed by Trump in May, the consolidated appropriations act provided $14 million for each of the now-targeted manufacturing institutes, plus $14 million to establish a new one.

The institutes are industry-government-university partnerships funded through EERE. Each focuses on a set of technologies that would reduce energy usage in specific industries, such as next-generation power electronics, advanced composites, and intelligent manufacturing. The partnerships are expected to become independent of federal support within five years of their launch, obtaining their funding from the private sector and other nongovernment sources.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which received 80% of its $363 million budget this year from EERE, would also face steep cuts under the House appropriations measure, although likely not as severe as the 21% reduction proposed by Trump. The NREL would fare much better under the Senate bill, though exact numbers for the lab aren’t specified. A lab spokesperson declined to discuss the potential impacts of the bills prior to completion of the appropriations process.

The full Senate has yet to act on its version of the bill. Once that occurs, House and Senate conferees work out a common measure, normally splitting the differences in funding levels. Resolution of program terminations usually depends on whether a committee or subcommittee chairperson has a particular interest in the program. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who chairs the energy and water subcommittee, is a strong supporter of both ARPA–E and Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

One of the hubs that was spared, the Critical Materials Institute, works to find alternatives to rare-earth metals and other materials essential in energy applications and to help diversify supply sources. Director Alex King says the institute, which was created in the wake of a rare-earths price spike in the early 2010s, provides research support to 330 people located at Ames, three other national labs, and six universities.