Weekly Jolt ⚡ Electrolyzers, Electric Vehicle Materials, and Affordable Electricity

Come Work with Us

DOE’s Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program is now accepting applications for communities across the country to learn about best practices, strategies, and tools for approaching specific energy topics. 🤝 If you’re interested in pursuing energy efficiency programs for residential buildings, electrifying vehicles used by city governments, or adding solar to your farming projects, apply for the next C2C peer-learning cohort by April 30! 

What’s New in Buildings and Industry?

DOE just released the first ever government blueprint to remove greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector! 🎉  Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector projects that we can reduce building sector GHG emissions by 90%, saving U.S. consumers more than $100 billion in total annual energy costs and avoiding $17 billion in annual health costs.

But this blueprint isn’t the only new government initiative with the goal of decarbonizing our buildings sector. DOE leaders recently gathered at the Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit and announced several new initiatives to increase energy efficiency and combat climate change. 📝 These initiatives include improvements to heat pump rooftop units, new industry working groups, and installing next-generation lighting products in commercial buildings through the final phase of DOE’s Lighting Prize!

What’s New in Sustainable Transportation and Fuels?

The Energy Observer , a zero-emission vessel powered by renewable energy and hydrogen and fuel cells, just stopped by Washington, D.C.! 🚢 EERE's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office helped fund the electrolyzer technology that splits seawater into oxygen and clean hydrogen. Not sure how that works? Watch the video below with HFTO’s director Dr. Sunita Satyapal to see just what electrolyzers can do for sustainable energy.

With high-performance fuel cell and electrolyzer systems gaining momentum in the clean energy industry through transport like the Energy Observer, we want to make sure it is cost-effective to manufacture and operate these technologies in the United States. Check out how this renewed consortium of national laboratories is tackling this issue head on, developing “roll-to-roll” manufacturing processes that will make it cheaper to build fuel cell and electrolyzer systems! 

Demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and stationary energy storage is projected to expand the lithium battery market as much as ten-fold by 2030, so it is important to recycle batteries of all kinds to reduce the demand for critical materials and drive down costs. ♻ DOE recently selected 17 projects to encourage this consumer battery recycling and make it easier for the average battery-user to do so through improved processes and programs! 

A Spotlight on Our National Labs  

A two-year study conducted by National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , funded by EERE’s Wind Technologies Office, shows that strategically linking select offshore wind energy projects via offshore transmission networks will help lower electricity production costs, enhance the reliability of the U.S. grid, and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels—all with minimal effect to oceanic ecosystems. 🌊 Find out what immediate next steps will connect the first generation of Atlantic offshore wind projects to the electric grid!  

The 2023 Critical Materials Assessment, spearheaded by EERE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office and supported by Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory , lists materials deemed critical and near-critical to clean energy technologies through 2035. 🪨 If you missed it last July, read how DOE and the national labs are working together to identify and mitigate materials supply chain risks from a global rise in electricity use and a greater emphasis on renewable technologies like EVs, wind turbines, and LEDs.