Alternative Energy Development – NREL Activities Exposed
President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union Address for the year 2007, called for an increase in the federal grant for the research and development of an alternative source of energy by 22%. However, I picked up mixed signals about the funding, in a speech the President gave soon after to those assembled.
Perhaps the mixed signals can be drawn from the fact that simultaneously the President was insisting on more backing from the government for the research and development of alternate energy.
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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden in Colorado (NREL) was letting go of contractors and workers with fine abandon. But it can be supposed that the laboratory understood the message, for not long after the State of Union Address, they were all re-hired. In fact, the President?s second speech was delivered at the NREL itself. There can be said to be undisputed public support for tax breaks, research grants and financial incentives for research and development of sources of alternative energy, through federal backing.
The NREL is the chief component of the ?virtual? National Bioenergy Center, which is a center with no actual office. The NREL was established exclusively to achieve the objectives of the United States alternative energy and so the Department of Energy can advance. Dan Arvizu, the Director of the laboratory, says that the staff scientists and field researchers sanction the objectives of the critical market towards accelerating research whether it be scientific innovation or feasible alternative energy solutions. He goes on to say that NREL?s technology and research development goals are the roots of this strategy. These goals start from the understanding of renewable energy resources, to the translation of these to renewable fuel and electricity and finally to the utilization of these in homes, vehicles and commercial buildings. The laboratory, federally backed, directly helps achieve the objectives for unveiling new alternative fuels for improving our economy and powering our lifestyle.
The NREL has been established to provide expertise in several areas pertaining to the development of alternative energy. It directs research and development initiatives in renewable sources of electricity including geothermal power, biomass power, wind power and solar power. It also steers the research and development of vehicle-powering fuels like biodiesel fuels, hydrogen fuel cells and biomass. It also aims at supervising an integrated system-engineering plan that includes activating alternative energy in buildings, delivery systems and electrical grids, and infrastructure transportation. The laboratory also targets the analysis and development of the objectives of alternative energy through economics, structuring the portfolio of alternative energy investment, and market planning and analysis.
In addition, a Technology Transfer Office furnishes the NREL. This office maintains a team of engineers and laboratory scientists who make a living by the application of their expertise including various technologies developed. The competence of the staff and facilities of NREL can be observed by the number of collaborative projects as well as licensed technologies shared by the laboratory and their partners, both private and public.