Solar Energy Funding

(Denver Business Journal, July 27, 2009) Despite recent talk about the “new energy economy” in Colorado and other states, the demand for solar power in the United States, while growing, still lags smaller countries like Germany and Spain, says a report Monday from Pike Research of Boulder.And while government subsidies for solar projects are increasing, “financing for solar projects remains elusive,” Pike research said. The report predicts that the U.S. market for solar-generated power will surpass Spain’s by the end of the year and will top Germany’s by 2013. Read more

Increased Mergers in Energy Sector?

By Greg Barr Senior Reporter

(Houston Business Journal, July 27, 2009) For the energy industry, the new buzzword is “hope.”Merger deals in the energy sector should pick up later this year as increased commodity prices firm up while demand increases and the economic situation brightens, according to Ernst & Young LLP’s third quarter energy forecast, released Monday. “In the past few years, there was a $20 to $25 per barrel ‘risk premium’ added to oil prices. That premium has been replaced by a ‘hope premium’, as markets believe an improving economy will spur significant demand increase,” said Marcela Donadio, Americas Oil & Gas Center industry leader at Ernst & Young. Read more

Carbon Capture Policy Briefs

(R&D Magazine, July 24, 2009) Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, which captures carbon dioxide from power plants and safely disposes of it deep underground, will not meet its full potential in the U.S. without new federal regulations that create a uniform regulatory environment. This is the conclusion of a set of four policy briefs just released by the CSSReg project led by M. Granger Morgan, head of Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Engineering and Public Policy. “At the moment, there is a patchwork of different rules across the U.S. and a great deal of legal uncertainty,” Morgan said. ”We need a clear way for CCS projects to obtain the right to inject carbon dioxide into appropriate geological formations and a strategy for safely addressing long-term stewardship once an injection project ends.” Read more

Unmanned Aircraft Take on Increased Importance

By Gerry J. Gilmore

(American Forces Press Service, July 23, 2009) Washington(AFNS)–The U.S. military’s expanded overseas use of unmanned aircraft highlights the increased importance of such aerial platforms to current and future military operations, senior Air Force officers said here July 23. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan announced July 23 will serve as a template for how the Air Force will look in 2047 – the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force — Gen. William M. Fraser III, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. Read more

Increased Use of Drones for Military

By Christopher Drew 

(New York Times, July 23, 2009) Small remotely piloted planes are now used mainly to gather intelligence and fire missiles at insurgents. But over the next several decades, the Air Force envisions building larger ones that could do the work of bombers and cargo planes and even tiny ones that could spy inside a room. In a report released Thursday laying out a “flight plan” for developing pilotless systems, the Air Force also said it could eventually field swarms of drones to attack enemy targets. Read more

Appropriations

(AAAS Policy Update, July 20, 2009) The House passed its Energy and Water appropriations bill (H.R.3183) on July 17. The Department of Energy’s Office of Science would receive $4.9 billion, a 3.9 percent increase over FY 2009, with $15 million of that amount set aside for the new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill was approved by the House Appropriations Committee on July 17. A $30.2 million (89 percent) increase in Railroad Safety research, to $64 million, was part of larger increases to passenger rail funding, including a new $4 billion grant program for high speed/intercity passenger service. Read more

Biotech and Healthcare

Biotechnology has the potential to orient health-care around individual patients. But it won’t while the industry follows Big Pharma’s lead

By Saul Kaplan

(Business Week, July 27, 2009) The national health-care debate is many things to many business interests. To the biotech industry, it seems to be a matter of life and death. Makers of biotech drugs, which are derived by manipulating genetic material in living organisms, insist that their products must be patent-protected from generic “biosimilars” for at least 12 years. That would ensure monopoly prices, which the industry says are required to earn back their big investments in research and development. Read more

DOE-Funded Research Projects Win 46 R&D Awards for 2009

(DOE Release, July 24, 2009) Washington, D.C.,– U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today that Energy Department-funded researchers have won 46 of the 100 awards given out this year by R&D Magazine for the most outstanding technology developments with promising commercial potential.  The coveted awards are presented annually in recognition of exceptional new products, processes, materials or software developed throughout the world and introduced into the market the previous year. “The Department of Energy’s national laboratories are incubators of innovation, and I’m proud they are being recognized once again for their remarkable work,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.  ”The cutting-edge research and development being done in our national labs is vital to maintaining America’s competitive edge, Read more

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