Actions Taken Over The Next Decade To Demonstrate And Deploy Key Technologies Will Determine U.S. Energy Future

Date: July 28, 2009

Contacts: Rebecca Alvania, Media Relations Officer

Luwam Yeibio, Media Relations Assistant

Office of News and Public Information

202-334-2138; e-mail <news@nas.edu>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Actions Taken Over the Next Decade to Demonstrate and Deploy Key Technologies Will Determine U.S. Energy Future

WASHINGTON -- With a sustained national commitment, the United States could obtain substantial energy-efficiency improvements, new sources of energy, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions through the accelerated deployment of existing and emerging energy technologies, according to America's Energy Future: Technology and Transformation, the capstone report of the America's Energy Future project of the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering.
Initiating deployment of these technologies is urgent; actions taken -- or not taken -- between now and 2020 to develop and demonstrate several key technologies will largely determine the nation's energy options for many decades to come.

Deploying existing energy-efficiency technologies is a near-term and low-cost way to reduce U.S. energy demand, the report says. Fully deploying these technologies in buildings alone could save enough power to eliminate the need for new electricity generating plants to meet growing U.S. demand. However, some new plants would likely still be needed to address regional supply imbalances, replace obsolete technology, or present more environmentally friendly sources of electricity. Deployment of efficiency technologies in the building, industrial, and transportation sectors could reduce projected U.S. energy use by 15 percent in 2020 and by 30 percent in 2030. Even greater energy savings would be possible with more aggressive policies and incentives.

The United States has many promising options for obtaining new sources of electricity over the next two to three decades, especially if carbon capture and storage and evolutionary nuclear technologies can be deployed at an adequate scale. However, according to the report, the deployment of these new technologies is very likely to result in higher consumer prices for electricity. In addition, the nation's electrical grid will require expansion and modernization to enhance its reliability and security, accommodate changes in load growth and electricity demand, and to enable the deployment of new energy efficiency and supply technologies, especially intermittent wind and solar energy.

In the transportation sector, petroleum will continue to be an indispensable fuel in the coming decades, but maintaining current rates of domestic petroleum production (about 5.1 million barrels per day in 2008) will be challenging. There are limited options for replacing petroleum or reducing petroleum use before 2020, but there are more substantial long-term options that could begin to make significant contributions by 2030 or 2035. Reductions in petroleum use could be obtained through increased vehicle efficiency, production of alternative liuid fuels such as cellulosic ethanol or coal-and-biomass fuels, and expanding deployment of battery electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity and transportation sectors are achievable over the next two to three decades, the report says. In both cases, adopting a portfolio approach -- deploying a variety of alternative technologies aimed at reducing emissions -- would be necessary. For the electricity sector, enabling this portfolio approach will require demonstrating, within the next decade, that carbon capture and storage technologies are technically and commercially viable in both new and existing power plants and in liquid fuels production. It will also be necessary to demonstrate the commercial viability of evolutionary nuclear plants.

To begin accelerated deployments of new energy technologies by 2020, and to ensure that innovative ideas continue to be explored, the public and private sectors will need extensive research development and demonstration over the next decade. The report notes that a broad portfolio approach, supporting basic research through the demonstration stage, will likely be more effective than targeted efforts aimed at identifying technology winners and losers. At the demonstration stage, high-priority technologies include carbon capture and storage, evolutionary nuclear technologies, cellulosic ethanol, and advanced light-duty vehicles. The more long-term research and development needs include new technologies for producing liquid fuels from renewable resources, advanced batteries and fuel cells, large-scale electricity storage, enhanced geothermal power, and advanced solar photovoltaic technologies.

In addition, because many barriers exist that could delay or prevent technology deployment, the report recommends that sustained policy and regulatory actions, as well as other forms of incentives, be employed to drive adoption.

The America's Energy Future project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, BP America, Dow Chemical Company Foundation, Fred Kavli and the Kavli Foundation, GE Energy, General Motors Corp., Intel Corp., and the W.M. Keck Foundation. Support was also provided by the National Academies through the following endowed funds created to perpetually support the work of the National Research Council: Thomas Lincoln Casey Fund, Arthur L. Day Fund, W.K. Kellogg Foundation Fund, George and Cynthia Mitchell Endowment for Sustainability Science, and Frank Press Fund for Dissemination and Outreach. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter. The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. A committee roster follows.

Copies of the summary edition of America's Energy Future: Technology and Transformation are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).

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[ This news release and report are available at http://national-academies.org ]

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

and

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

Committee on America’s Energy Future

Harold T. Shapiro 1 (chair)
President Emeritus, and
Professor of Economics and Public Affairs
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J.

Mark S. Wrighton (vice chair)
Professor of Chemistry and Chancellor
Washington University
St. Louis

John F. Ahearne 2
Executive Director Emeritus
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Allen J. Bard 3
Hackerman Welch Regents' Chair in Chemistry
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Texas
Austin

Jan Beyea
Senior Scientist
Consulting in the Public Interest
Lambertville, N.J.

W.F. Brinkman 3
Senior Research Physicist
Department of Physics
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J.

Douglas M. Chapin 2
Principal
MPR Associates Inc.
Alexandria, Va.

Steven Chu 3*
Secretary
U.S. Department of Energy
Washington, D.C.

Christine A. Ehlig-Economides 2
Professor and Albert B. Stevens Endowed Chair
Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering
Texas A&M University
College Station

Robert W. Fri

Visiting Scholar and Senior Fellow Emeritus

Resources for the Future Inc.

Bethesda, Md.

Charles H. Goodman

Senior Vice President for Generation Policy

Southern Company Services Inc. (retired)

Birmingham, Ala.

John B. Heywood 2
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge

Lester B. Lave 1
Harry B. and James H. Higgins Professor of Economics, and
University Professor
Tepper School of Business

Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh

James J. Markowsky 2
Executive Vice President
Power Generation Group
American Electric Power Service Corp. (retired)
North Falmouth, Mass.

Richard A. Meserve 2
President
Carnegie Institution for Science
Washington, D.C.

Warren F. Miller Jr. 2
Research Professor
Nuclear Engineering and Associate Director
Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute
Texas A&M University; and
Senior Adviser and Director

Los Alamos National Laboratory (retired)

Albuquerque, N.M.

Franklin M. Orr Jr. 2
Professor of Energy Resources Engineering, and
Director
Global Climate and Energy Project
Stanford University
Stanford, Calif.

Lawrence T. Papay 2
CEO and Principal
PQR LLC
La Jolla, Calif.

Aristides A.N. Patrinos

President

Synthetic Genomics Inc.

La Jolla, Calif.

Michael P. Ramage 2
Executive Vice President
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co. (retired)
Moorestown, N.J.

Maxine L. Savitz 2
General Manager
Honeywell Inc. (retired)
Los Angeles

Robert H. Socolow

Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Princeton Environmental Institute

Princeton University

Princeton, N.J.

James L. Sweeney

Director

Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency

Stanford University

Stanford, Calif.

G. David Tilman 3
Director
Cedar Creek Natural History Area, and
Regents Professor
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
University of Minnesota
St. Paul

C. Michael Walton 2

Ernest H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering

Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental

Engineering

University of Texas

Austin

RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF

Kevin Crowley

Study Director

Director, Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board

America’s Energy Future Project Managers

Peter D. Blair

Executive Director, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

James Zucchetto

Director, Board on Energy and Environmental Systems

1 Member, Institute of Medicine

2 Member, National Academy of Engineering

3 Member, National Academy of Sciences

* Resigned from committee on January 21, 2009