(click to enlarge slide)

Thank you, Chuck [Charles Vest] and the National Academies, for inviting me here this morning to speak before this impressive audience, and for the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion about America’s energy future.  I commend the Academies for taking on this timely study and I look forward to their deliberations.

I am here to discuss the opportunities that lie before us for breakthroughs in basic science to make significant impacts in our efforts to meet our nation’s future needs for abundant and environmentally benign energy.

(click to enlarge slide)

Everyone here understands the challenge—availability of sufficient environmentally friendly energy sources to meet the needs of a rapidly growing and developing world population.  Not too many years ago, we seemed to be living in a world where energy was inexpensive, readily available, and seemingly limitless in supply.  That world, if it every really existed, is now clearly a thing of the past.  Today our dependence on fossil fuels and imported oil poses a growing risk to our economy, our national security, and the environment. 

This, of course, this is a global problem. Global energy consumption is set to double by the end of the century. Some say it will triple. And if we attempt to supply that energy with fossil fuels, the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere will be enormous.  We must find a way to meet the increasing demand for energy without adding catastrophically to greenhouse gases. 

(click to enlarge slide)

Today’s energy technologies and infrastructure are firmly rooted in 20th Century technologies, based on 19th Century discoveries. The invention of the internal combustion engine in the 1870’s has forever changed the kinds of energy that we use for transportation.  The related technologies created the fuel mix that we use today, and the infrastructure that is in place right now. Our current technologies cannot meet the energy challenges we now face, and incremental changes in technology will not suffice. We need disruptive technologies that will come from transformational discoveries through basic science research.

The technologies of the 21st Century, and beyond, will be rooted in our ability to direct and control matter down to the molecular, atomic, and quantum levels. In turn, the ability to control the building blocks of the biological and non-biological materials that make up the world around us can create opportunities for a broad spectrum of critical technologies.

(click to enlarge slide)

In 2002, the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences held the first in a series of 12  “Basic Research Needs” workshops that assessed basic research needs for energy technologies. These workshops brought together national and international scientific and technical experts from academia, industry, and government to identify the scientific roadblocks and determine priority basic research areas that, if pursued, would have the greatest potential for fundamental breakthroughs leading to revolutionary advances in energy technologies. The workshops focused on solar energy utilization, the hydrogen economy, superconductivity, solid state lighting, advanced energy systems, combustion of 21st century transportation fuels, geosciences, electrical energy storage, catalysis for energy applications, and materials under extreme environments.

(click to enlarge slide)

They were completed over a period of five years. Out of the workshops came several recurring themes: new materials design, development, and fabrication, especially materials that perform well under extreme conditions; control of photon, electron, spin, phonon, and ion transport in materials; science at the nanoscale; designer catalysts; structure-function relationships; bio-materials and bio-interfaces; and so on.

Underlying all of these research themes were five Grand Science Challenges identified in a recent report by the DOE Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, titled Directing Matter and Energy for Science and the Imagination. These grand challenges speak to understanding how Nature works:

• Controlling materials processes at the level of quantum behavior of electrons
• Atom- and energy-efficient synthesis of new forms of matter with tailored properties
• Emergent properties from complex correlations of atomic and electronic constituents
• Man-made nanoscale objects with capabilities rivaling those of living things; and
• Controlling matter very far from equilibrium.

These grand science challenges actually span the space of the DOE Office of Science portfolio.

(click to enlarge slide)

These five examples cover opportunities that will directly affect energy availability.  They all rely on understanding how Nature works at its most fundamental level.  Only through basic research can we open up opportunities for breakthroughs in each of these crucial areas, and begin to bridge what is imaginable and what is now possible. Let me expand on each of these five areas where we are poised to pursue transformational changes.

(click to enlarge slide)

I begin with solar. You have all probably heard this bit of trivia—that more energy from sunlight strikes the Earth in one hour than all of the energy consumed on the planet in a year.  Yet, despite its abundance, sunlight today provides less that 0.1% of the world’s primary energy. We need to be able to take greater advantage of this abundant source of carbon-neutral energy. The three routes for using solar energy—conversion to electricity, fuels, or thermal heat—exploit the functional steps of capture, conversion, and storage. They also exploit many of the same electronic and molecular mechanisms. The challenge: reducing the costs and increasing the capacity of conversion of sunlight into electricity or fuels that can be stored or transported.

Silicon-based single crystal solar cells have reached efficiencies of 18%. Triple-junction cells with Fresnel lens concentrator technology are approaching efficiencies of 40%. Imagine if we could develop solar photovoltaics that exceed thermodynamic efficiency limits. Imagine if we could borrow Nature’s design for capturing sunlight—photosynthesis—and directly convert it to chemical fuels.

(click to enlarge slide)

The DOE Office of Science is pursing basic research in solar utilization to try to reach these goals: new concepts for capturing energy from sunlight without thermalization of carriers, such as multiple-exciton generation from a single photon. And “plastic” solar cells from molecular, polymeric, or nanoparticle-based structures that can provide flexible, inexpensive, conformal electricity systems. And understanding defect formation in photovoltaic materials and self-repair mechanisms in photosynthesis, for developing defect tolerance and active self-repair in solar energy conversion devices enabling extended device operation.

We are delving into artificial photosynthesis. This includes the design and development of light-harvesting, photoconversion, and catalytic modules—bioinspired molecular assemblies—capable of self-ordering and self-assembling into integrated functional units that can lead to an efficient artificial photosynthetic system for solar fuels. The photosynthetic reaction center of plants are remarkably efficient, but we still have a lot to learn about their detailed reaction mechanisms. We are also just beginning to discover the number and variety of light-harvesting molecules in Nature. Craig Venter’s analysis of seawater samples taken from the Sargasso Sea identified 782 new rhodopsin-like photoreceptors, where only 70 were known before. [Rhodopsin is the photoreceptor/chromophore in the mammalian eye.] There is great potential in this area for direct production of fuels from sunlight.

(click to enlarge slide)

To make an intermittent energy source such as solar effective for base load electrical supply, major breakthroughs are required for electrical energy storage.  Similarly, electrical energy storage devices with substantially higher energy and power densities and faster charge times are required if all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles are to be market attractive.

Electrical energy storage devices such as batteries store energy in chemical reactants capable of generating charge. Storage devices such as electrochemical capacitors store energy directly as charge.  Fundamental gaps exist in understanding the atomic- and molecular-level processes that govern operation, performance limitations, and failure of these devices.

(click to enlarge slide)

Knowledge gained from basic research in the chemical and materials sciences is needed to surmount the significant challenges of creating radical improvements for electrical energy storage devices for transportation use, and to take advantage of large but transient energy sources like solar and wind.

In pursuit of this knowledge, the DOE Office of Science is supporting research in areas such as nanostructured electrodes with tailored architectures. For example, fundamental studies of the electronic conductivity of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4­­) led to the discovery of doping-induced conductivity increases of eight orders of magnitude. This discovery led to the development of high power-density Li-ion batteries by A123 Systems which power electric vehicles such as the Chevy Volt. We are also looking at conversion reactions for batteries that yield more than one electron per redox center. New research on conversion reactions is looking at advanced materials that yield up to six electrons per redox center, allowing a large increase in power density. We are also investing in research on ultracapacitors which complement battery power by allowing rapid charge and discharge cycles.

(click to enlarge slide)

A third area where we believe that fundamental scientific breakthroughs can change the energy equation is biofuels.  The development of biofuels—especially lignocellulose biofuels—represents a major scientific opportunity that can strengthen U.S. energy security while protecting the global environment. Imagine a sustainable, carbon-neutral biofuels economy capable of meeting over 30% of U.S. transportation fuel needs without competing with fuel, feed, and export demands.

The capability to tap into the energy contained in plant fiber or cellulose would give us the means to produce biofuels on a scale sufficient to create such a nationwide biofuels economy. Unfortunately, our current means of converting cellulose, or plant fiber, to fuel is not efficient, nor cost effective.  It’s a tough problem.  Plant fiber has evolved over the millennia to be extremely resistant to breakdown by biological or natural forces. The plant cell walls contain a substance called lignin, which is tightly woven with the cellulose—and gives it its incredible strength—“flexible concrete”.  The enzymes currently available to us cannot easily penetrate to get at the cellulose and break it up into sugars or other metabolites that can be used to produce fuels, called recalcitrance.

(click to enlarge slide)

However, Nature has solved this problem.  Termites, for example, are frighteningly efficient at converting cellulose and hemicellulose to fuel.  They eat wood, at an alarming rate, and convert the interior cellulose into energy. Using a systems biology approach, and developing the understanding of the principles underlying the structure and functional design of living systems, the basic research supported by the DOE Office of Science is focused on developing the capabilities to model, predict, and engineer optimized enzymes, microorganisms, and plants for bioenergy and environmental applications. A series of workshops led by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research identified the basic research needs for such an approach.

The emerging tools of systems biology are being used to help overcome current obstacles to bioprocessing cellulosic feedstocks to ethanol and other biofuels—research tools such as metagenomics, synthetic biology, high-throughput screening, advanced imaging, and high-end computational modeling.

In 2007, we launched three new DOE Bioenergy Research Centers, funded at $25 million per year each for five years, to pursue these research directions.  We believe that these Centers can crack Nature’s code for cost-effective biofuel conversion. 

(click to enlarge slide)

Today nuclear energy provides about 20% of the nation’s electricity.  It does so without using fossil fuels or emitting greenhouse gases or pollution. Nuclear energy could provide much more carbon-free, pollution-free energy.  A key challenge is solving the problem of spent nuclear fuel.  Current “once through” nuclear reactor policy leaves spent fuel rods with long-term heat loads and radioactive decay, and a significant fission fuel content.  Imagine if we could close the fuel cycle.

Advances in basic science leading to new recycling technologies can provide a major reduction in spent fuel—recycling the spent fuel and burning it in fission reactors, reducing storage requirements by up to 90%.

(click to enlarge slide)

Performance of materials and chemical processes under extreme conditions is a limiting factor in all areas of advanced nuclear energy systems. The challenge is understanding and controlling chemical and physical phenomena in complex systems from femto-seconds to millennia, at temperatures to 1,000 degrees Celsius, and for radiation doses leading to hundreds of displacements per atom.

In 2006 and 2007, the DOE Office of Science held three workshops designed to identify the basic science needed for the development of advanced nuclear energy systems and to close the fuel cycle. In addition to the Basic Research Needs workshops, two additional workshops were held in the area of nuclear physics and advanced scientific computing. Research areas identified in those workshops include: materials and chemistry under extreme conditions; actinide chemistry; separations science; nuclear theory; developing and scaling next-generation multiscale and multiphysics codes; and computational modeling and simulation of reactor and recycling systems. 

(click to enlarge slide)

Finally, one of the most promising future energy solutions lies in fusion.  Fusion is the energy that powers the sun and the stars.  Fusion energy uses deuterium from water, and lithium to create tritium, fusing deuterium and tritium into helium and a fast (14 MeV) neutron. Deuterium and lithium are abundant and cheap, the helium will escape from the earth’s gravity, and the energy of the neutron can be captured to generate electricity or produce hydrogen. Fusion has the potential to provide clean, carbon-free energy for the world’s growing electricity needs, on an almost limitless scale. The key challenge is sustaining and containing the 100 million degree-plus fusion reaction on earth.  Scientists have made progress containing fusion reactions using powerful magnetic fields for confinement. 

The basic science needs to enable this technology include: fundamental understanding of plasma science; materials for the extreme thermochemical environments and high neutron flux conditions of a fusion reactor; and predictive capability of plasma confinement and stability for an optimum experimental fusion power plant design.

(click to enlarge slide)

In November 2006, the United States signed an agreement with six international partners to build and operate an experimental fusion reactor, ITER, that will demonstrate the technical and scientific feasibility of a sustained fusion burning plasma.  Scientists supported by the DOE Office of Science will be working side by side with counterparts from China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Russian Federation. 

(click to enlarge slide)

In order to engage the Nation’s intellectual and creative talent to tackle the scientific grand challenges associated with transformation energy research, the DOE Office of Science announced the Energy Frontier Research Centers initiative last month in its FY 2009 budget request to Congress. These Centers are intended to conduct innovative basic research for accelerating scientific breakthroughs needed to create advanced energy technologies for the 21st Century.  One hundred million dollars will be set aside for these Centers each year, each of which will be funded between $2 million to $5 million per year for five years. Universities, national laboratories, industry, non-profits, and partnerships among those groups are eligible to apply. The basic research areas will be along the lines of those identified in the Basic Research Needs workshops.  Our goal is to bring together the United State’s best minds to tackle these formidable problems.

(click to enlarge slide)

I conclude with a statement made by the President in his State of the Union Address this year.  This was a personal statement of the confidence and trust he has in you.  He said “To keep America competitive into the future, we must trust the skill of our scientists and engineers and empower them to pursue the breakthroughs of tomorrow.”

Our Nation’s future depends on the scientific, innovative, and creative talent of our citizens. The only truly unlimited national resource we have is our ideas.