DOE Awards $41 Million for Renewable Energy Projects, Including CarbonBridge

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $41 million in funding for 14 innovative projects aimed at developing Renewables-to-Liquids (RtL) technologies. These technologies will utilize renewable energy sources like wind and solar to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals that are as easily transported and stored as traditional carbon-intensive liquids like gasoline or oil.

Renewable energy resources are often located far from the U.S. power grid. By creating sustainable fuels that can be transported more easily, these projects will help overcome these logistical challenges and contribute to reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industrial sectors.

“With today’s announcement, the Department of Energy charges forward on its mission of finding and elevating new technologies to ensure that the United States remains innovative and energy independent,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Renewables-to-liquids fuel production has the potential to boost the utility of renewable energy all while helping to lay the groundwork for the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals of creating a clean energy economy.”

The selected project teams will develop systems that operate at renewable energy production sites. These systems will use electricity, carbon dioxide, and water to create liquids that can serve as renewable fuels or replacements for conventional fuels. The clean energy produced can be used across the U.S., including in sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, such as transportation. Currently, low-carbon fuels are expensive, costing around $10 per gallon. By utilizing cheaper electricity sources like wind and solar, independent of the grid, producers can achieve lower overall costs.

The DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will manage these projects through its Grid-free Renewable Energy Enabling New Ways to Economical Liquids and Long-term Storage (GREENWELLS) program. This is ARPA-E’s first initiative supporting RtL approaches to create liquid fuels. The program aims to develop systems capable of economically storing at least 50% of incoming intermittent electrical energy in carbon-containing liquids.

One of the selected startups is CarbonBridge, a graduate of Santa Cruz Accelerates' 5th cohort, focused on replacing fossil fuel with microbial methanol. For more details on the other selected projects, visit GREENWELLS Project Descriptions