03/21/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/21/2023 09:14
New Department-wide Initiative Will Drive Public and Private Sector Engagement Critical to Effective Clean Energy Industrial Strategy
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the launch of its Pathways to Commercial Liftoff, a set of reports that represent a new department-wide initiative to strengthen engagement between the public and private sectors to accelerate the commercialization and deployment of key clean energy technologies. The reports provide the private sector and other industry partners a valuable, engagement-driven resource on how and when certain technologies-beginning with clean hydrogen, advanced nuclear, and long duration energy storage-can reach full scale deployment. The new initiative underscores the critical role that DOE plays in enabling widespread commercial adoption of the clean energy technologies that are essential to meeting President Biden's ambitious goals of achieving 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
"As we combat the climate crisis and race towards an equitable clean energy future, public and private partnerships will be more important and critical than ever before," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. "The Liftoff reports will help drive engagement between government and industry to unlock exciting new opportunities and ensure America is the global leader in the next generation of clean energy technologies."
President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act provided DOE billions of dollars to invest in and support large-scale demonstration and deployment of clean energy technologies over the next decade. These historic investments are intended to drive commercialization and unlock trillions in private investment to set the nation on a course to hit critical long-term decarbonization objectives. The Liftoff reports will provide insights that will help steer those investments and enable the nation's broader industrial strategy-creating high quality American jobs, strengthening domestic supply chains and global competitiveness, and facilitating an equitable energy transition.
By 2030, the reports concluded that cumulative investments must increase from approximately $40 billion to $400 billion across the hydrogen, nuclear, and long duration energy storage sectors, with continued acceleration until 2050 required to stay on track to realize long-term decarbonization targets.
Additional insights from the first three reports include:
Given the constantly and rapidly evolving market, technology, and policy environment as well as community needs and concerns, the Liftoff reports are designed to be "living documents," and will be updated as the commercialization outlook on each technology evolves. DOE will continue to solicit input through industry forums, requests for information, and regular interactions across industry, investors, and other stakeholders to help inform decisions. DOE also encourages direct public input, which can be submitted via email to [email protected].
The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff reports were developed through extensive stakeholder engagement and a combination of system-level modeling and project-level financial modeling. Additional reports will be added in the coming months. Find out more information about the reports here, and read the full reports here.
Later today, DOE will host a virtual fireside chat at 1:30 p.m., ET featuring senior DOE leaders introducing the Pathways to Commercial Liftoff and exploring in-depth the first report to be released, the Clean Hydrogen Pathway to Commercial Liftoff. Register here.
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