The Energy Department plans to provide potential four-year, $100 million funds for 42 research centers developing projects on solar and nuclear power, fuel and chemical production, conservation and storage, electronics and computation, earth subsurface control and carbon capture.An average of $2 to 4 million will be awarded annually to the current Energy Frontier Research Centers from fiscal year 2018 funds, with the outyear budget to be determined through Congressional appropriations, the DOE said Friday.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the EFRC program will continue to develop critical energy technologies for American electricity security.
The present set of EFRCs includes 22 new centers, nine renewals and 11 that received two-year extensions for the completion of ongoing research projects.
The DOE’s Office of Science created the EFRC program in 2009 to promote research and development of energy-related fields.
