USA Energy: DOE Announces $42.3 Million and New Industry Partnerships to Decarbonize American Manufacturing

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced a $42.3 million funding opportunity and new pilot projects for the American manufacturing sector that will reduce carbon emissions across the economy and improve America’s economic competitiveness. The industrial sector contributed 23% of all greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, and decarbonizing U.S. industries is a key step toward meeting President Biden’s goal of a carbon-neutral economy by 2050.

“Manufacturing is at the heart of the American economy – providing good-paying jobs and creating the products that we rely on in our everyday lives,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “With these investments, the Department of Energy is helping reestablish U.S. manufacturing leadership while scaling up the technologies needed to reduce our collective carbon footprint and address climate change.”

DOE is launching two new initiatives as part of its weeklong “Future of Manufacturing” campaign:

Spurring innovations to achieve cleaner and more efficient manufacturing: DOE is announcing a $42.3 million funding opportunity to support manufacturing innovations for high performance clean energy technologies to drive economy-wide reductions in carbon emissions, including:

Next-generation manufacturing processes that improve energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of energy-intensive industries.
Development of novel materials that improve the energy efficiency of manufacturing processes and resulting products.
Improving the systems and processes for how energy is stored, converted, and used, including manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries to support electric vehicles.
Testing clean, cutting-edge technologies in real-world conditions: DOE has selected five private-sector partners to each receive approximately $300,000 worth of DOE technical assistance to test clean, efficient technologies in real-world industrial environments. These Industrial Technology Validation projects will accelerate the adoption of cost-effective, emerging technologies that can help decarbonize the industrial sector. DOE will fund experts led by U.S. National Laboratories to design measurement and verification plans, conduct on-site testing, and draft field validation reports. These reports will be made publicly available to inform future energy-saving innovations. The selected testbeds will evaluate energy and water-treatment technologies in facilities operated by the following DOE Better Plants partners:

Ahlstrom-Munksjo (Kaukauna, WI): A leading company for sustainable and innovative fiber-based solutions that manufactures products like tea bags, coffee filters, food packaging, and face masks.
Cleveland Cliffs (Cleveland, OH): The largest flat-rolled steel company and largest iron ore pellet producer in North America.
Nissan North America (Canton, MS): Vehicle production plant with annual production capacity of 450,000 vehicles.
Schneider Electric (Seneca, SC): Plant makes motor control centers used in applications ranging from production lines to wastewater treatment plants.
Toyota North America (Blue Spring, MS): Vehicle production plant that produces the Toyota Corolla.
Taken together, the new initiatives announced throughout the week amount to roughly $130 million in funding for technologies that will reduce the carbon footprint across the nation’s economy.

These projects will be led by DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, part of DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), which invests in manufacturers, not-for-profit entities, research organizations, and institutions of higher education to identify challenges, catalyze innovations, and develop the cutting-edge material, process, and information technologies needed for an efficient and competitive domestic manufacturing sector.

EERE’s mission is to accelerate the research, development, demonstration, and deployment of technologies and solutions to equitably transition America to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050, and ensure the clean energy economy benefits all Americans, creating good paying jobs for the American people—especially workers and communities impacted by the energy transition and those historically underserved by the energy system and overburdened by pollution.