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Sammies nominee creates eco-friendly building
A building that runs on almost no energy. It's not magic, it's called a net zero building -- and the Energy Department can now boast of creating the world's largest.
Tags: technology , Jeff Baker , Office of Laboratory Operations , green government , Sammies 2010 , Sammies , Partnership for Public Service , Dorothy Ramienski , DorobekInsider
New Platinum Fuel Cells
A new form of platinum that could be used to make cheaper, more efficient fuel cells has been created by researchers at the Department of Energy's S-L-A-C National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Houston. The process could help enable broader use of the devices, which produce emissions-free energy using hydrogen. Fuel cells hold significant promise for clean energy because the cell's only byproduct is water. But current fuel cell designs can require as much as 100 grams of platinum, pushing their price tags into the thousands of dollars. By tweaking platinum's reactivity, the researchers were able to curtail the amount of platinum required by 80 percent, and hope to soon reduce it by another 10 percent, greatly trimming away at the overall cost.
Tags: technology , Meeting Mission Goals Through Technology ,
Digital Ants
The Pacific Northwest National Lab, part of the Department of Energy, says the Pentagon's computers experience more than five thousand cyber-attacks a day. Now the lab is working on a unique new way to fight cyber-threats with what it calls 'digital ants' that can digitally scurry through a network, cleaning up threats before they occur. The so-called "ants" can follow a virtual "trail" to the source of problems and retrieve information.
Tags: technology , Cyber Security Reports , cybersecurity
ARPA-E seeks to change future energy technologies
New arm of the Department of Energy hopes to be what DARPA is for DoD.
Tags: technology , ARPA-E , Dr. Arun Majumdar , Dorothy Ramienski , innovation , DARPA , daily debrief , Energy
Digital ants help fight cyber attacks
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, part of the Department of Energy, is developing digital ants -- yes, ants -- to help keep your agency's systems secure.
Tags: technology , cybersecurity , Cybersecurity Update , Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , Dr. Deb Frinke , digital ants , Dorothy Ramienski , daily debrief
Energy Efficiency Retrofits
In observation of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Vice President's Office announced the selection of 25 communities for up to $452 million in Recovery Act funding to "ramp-up" energy efficiency building retrofits. Under a Department of Energy initiative, communities, governments, private sector companies and non-profits will work together on programs for concentrated retrofits of neighborhoods and towns - and eventually entire states. Meeting one of the Energy Department's missions, the models are expected to save households and businesses about a $100 million annually in utility bills, while leveraging private sector resources, to create what could be as many as 30,000 new jobs over the next three years.
Tags: technology , Meeting Mission Goals Through Technology , Earth Day , Recovery Act ,
Solar Growth
The Solar Energy Industries Association reports that 2009 was another year of strong growth in the industry despite the economic recession. They report overall U.S. solar electric capacity, including both photovoltaic and concentrating solar power installations, increased by some 37 percent. This was driven primarily by strong demand in the residential and utility-scale markets, state and federal policy advances, and declining technology prices. As a result, total solar industry revenue reached 4 billion dollars, a 36 percent increase over 2008. Pointing to the importance of the technology to reducing greenhouse gasses while helping to stimulate the economy, the Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technology Program accelerates the development of solar technologies as energy sources for the nation and world.
Tags: technology , Meeting Mission Goals Through Technology , solar energy ,
Element 117 Discovery
Culminating a decade-long journey to expand the periodic table, an international team of scientists from Russia and the U.S. - including two Department of Energy national labs and two universities - has discovered the newest superheavy element; element 117.
The experiment produced six atoms of the element. Element 117 was the only missing element in row seven of the periodic table.
Physicists say the discovery of new elements expand our understanding of the universe and provide important tests of nuclear theories. Lawrence Livermore National Lab director George Miller calls it a significant breakthrough for science that will provide new insight into the makeup of the universe. He calls it a "testimony to the strength of science and technology at the partner institutions.
Since 1940, 26 new elements beyond uranium have been added to the periodic table.
Tags: technology , Meeting Mission Goals Through Technology , Lawrence Livermore , George Miller , science
Production of Cellulosic Biofuels
The Department of Energy says an expansion of the production of cellulosic biofuels can help to meet energy production, and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
The Department's Section 9-42 program supports the production of cellulosic biofuels by providing payments on a per gallon basis through a reverse auction process.
Members of the Biotechnology Industry group "BIO" point to a new report they say shows advanced biofuels are key to creating new jobs and revitalizing the U.S. economy.
The Report says the development of the industry could produce more than 140-billion dollars in economic growth by the year 2030, including the direct creation of as many as 29-thousand jobs by the year 2012; while reducing U.S petroleum imports by about 5-point-5 billion dollars by the same year, and by nearly 70-billion dollars by the year 2022.
Tags: technology , Meeting Mission Goals Through Technology , biotechnology
GPO and Dept. of Energy take going green to the next level
Tags: technology , GPO , Barnaby Brasseux , Brad Gustafson , Bob Tapella
