Acting on a commitment in the President's June 25, 2013 Climate Action Plan, the Department of Energy announced July 2 it would fund up to $8 million in loan guarantees for new technologies that avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions in fossil fuel production. Funding would come under the Section 1703 loan guarantee program, established as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
The DOE solicitation was released in draft form for a 60-day comment period. DOE is seeking comment on the technologies it has proposed for funding, as well as others that potentially could be added to the scope of the grant program. The four areas identified for potential funding are:
- Advanced resource development, including new or significantly improved technologies for developing coal, natural gas, and oil reserves, including dry fracking (as opposed to current methods that use water or chemicals)
- Carbon capture from synthesis gases, flue gases, or effluent streams generated in coal or gas combustion
- Low-carbon power systems, which collect CO2 emissions from electricity generation, by integrating them into storage or beneficial reuse processes, and
- Efficiency improvements, such as combined heat and power, waste heat recovery, or distributed fossil power systems.
A DOE Fact Sheet on the solicitation can be found at http://energy.gov/articles/fact-sheet-draft-advanced-fossil-energy-solicitation-support-reductions-greenhouse-gas-and, and comments may be filed following directions on the DOE portal: http://lpo.energy.gov/resource-library/solicitations/advanced-fossil-energy-projects-solicitations/.
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