Clean energy initiatives get $63M from DOE with wind in the lead

Before the U.S. Department of Energy announced its $620 million in grants for Smart Grid demonstration projects today, it rolled out $63 million for clean energy innovations, with $45 million in stimulus money going exclusively toward the development of new wind turbine designs.
The government has unofficially anointed wind as the most promising of the renewable energy sources — over solar, geothermal, even biomass. Earlier this year, it doled out more than $1 billion in financing to jumpstart the clean energy sector, which saw a sharp decline in private investment following the economic downturn. The vast bulk of this money went to wind development projects. And this makes sense, considering that wind consistently produces more megawatts for a lower price.
Now Clemson University is benefiting from the government’s Wind and Hydropower Technologies program — receiving almost all of the $45 million to create a facility that will test the strength and efficiency of different utility-scale turbines. Called the Large Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing facility, the lab at Clemson is supposed to not only create more jobs in South Carolina where it’s based, but also lower energy prices for consumers and increase U.S. competitiveness in wind, which has so far been dominated by European countries.
Wind turbine manufacturers will be able to bring turbines they want to test to the nonprofit Clemson lab located at the Charleston Naval Complex.
The other $18 million the DOE allocated to clean energy innovation this week was split into 125 grants totaling as much as $150,000 for 107 small technology companies (selected from a pool of more than 950) in the U.S. The idea is to galvanize small business activity in the country, while also promoting bold new green energy ideas.
This grant program, under the banner of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) is operating like an elimination competition, with only the best ideas funded in this round receiving an additional $60 million next summer.
The companies selected fall into ten broad categories within clean energy: Advanced HVAC systems including green building techniques (15 projects, $2.2 million); water use in electric power generation (6 projects, $878,144); power plant cooling (1 project, $150,000); advanced gas turbines (11 projects, $1.6 million); wireless networks, sensors and controls used to increase energy efficiency and monitor transmission lines (12 projects, $1.8 million); advanced hydropower systems (12 projects, $1.7 million); home automation systems to improve energy efficiency (8 projects, $1.2 million); advanced solar (12 projects, $2.8 million); improving efficiency in cement-making and other heavy manufacturing processes (25 projects, $3.7 million); and reducing waste in manufacturing, including water and heat waste (16 projects, $2.2 million).
Below is a full list of the companies that received a piece of the $18 million. They are pretty geographically diverse, although many are unsurprisingly in California, Massachusetts and Texas — three states that have received a lot of support for green energy recently.

SBIR_Awards_112309 –