Research & Development - 2019 Global R&D Funding Forecast

2019 GLOBAL R&D FUNDING FORECAST

There are two primary criteria for evaluating development efforts in energy R&D—climate change and costs. For climate change, the R&D is generally focused on the minimization of carbon emissions. For costs, the R&D is generally focused on products, processes and systems that reduce or minimize the energy costs required to accomplish certain tasks—creating sustainable energy resources. Energy sources consist of fossil fuels (based on coal and petroleum), solar (based on wind and photovoltaic [PV] systems and devices), hydroelectric, nuclear (fusion and fission nuclear systems) and geothermal.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) Office of Science has a FY2019 R&D budget of $6.6 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion over the Administration’s proposal and 5.2% more than their FY2018 budget. Every basic science program gained in the FY2019 budget approval. Even the contribution to the ITER— the world’s largest tokamak fusion research experiment located in southern France—got a 144% U.S. increase to $122 million.

The DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy recently announced that it will fund R&D efforts that will “advance first-of-a-kind coal generation technologies.” The DOE’s FIRST (which stands for flexible, innovative, resilient, small and transformative) program will develop the coal plant of the future needed to provide secure, stable and reliable power. The program is expected to

Energy R&D

support coal-fired electric power plants that are capable of flexible operations to meet the needs of the electric grid; use innovative and cutting-edge components that improve efficiency and reduce emissions; and are smaller than current utility-scale coal systems. Funding for this program is for FY2019.

Design criteria for the FIRST program include minimized water consumption, near-zero carbon emissions (including the possibility of retrofitting carbon capture devices), small (50 to

350 MW), capabilities of natural gas co-firing, reduced design,
construction and commissioning schedules,
and integration with thermal or other energy
storage systems.

The European approach to energy R&D has taken a different path. The European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) recently made a drive to coordinate the renewable energy R&D of European member states, industries and research institutes to accelerate their goals of meeting the EU’s 2050 climate change energy targets (net-zero carbon emissions). A number of European states have already committed to 100% renewable energy implementation well before 2050.

Some U.S. states have already committed to reducing their carbon emissions, going against the federal government’s actions. Northern Indiana Public Service company, for example, has said it will retire its last five coal-fired units over the next decade as it transforms to renewable sources.

Even ExxonMobil, which had dramatically reduced its R&D investments during the oil price wars a few years ago, has resumed its R&D. It recently announced its first energy center partnership outside the U.S. in Singapore with the Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore.