Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Chu Puts EV Batteries, Solar Deployment at Top of U.S. Priorities

Chu Puts EV Batteries, Solar Deployment at Top of U.S. Priorities
Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a Senate budget panel that the U.S. should be the nation to develop batteries that would power electric vehicles for trips of 300 miles to 400 miles on a single charge, Politico Pro reported. Chu was quoted as saying: "The companies and countries that achieve those types of batteries … will have a multi-multi-billion dollar market, and we really want the U.S. to be that kind of market. This is the first tangible thing we can do to get us off of foreign oil."

Chu was addressing the panel to encourage senators to support President Obama's proposed 12-percent increase in DOE's budget. Chu said also that the deployment of solar generation could be expected to be cut in half in the next few years, with the goal of cutting those costs by 75 percent. Carbon capture and sequestration technology would take longer, probably until 2020. Chu was quoted as saying: "The clean coal technologies we now have are too expensive for deployment, significant deployment. This is research and development, but it's not ready for prime time."
Politico Pro
 
, March 2.

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