Energy Department to invest $44M in carbon capture technologies

The Department of Energy will invest $44 million in projects to build new carbon capture technologies, the agency announced Friday.

The agency said increased carbon capture technologies will improve the competitiveness of U.S. fossil fuel generation by reducing overall energy consumption.

“These projects will advance competitive operation of our nation’s fossil-based power-generation infrastructure by reducing energy consumption and capital costs associated with next-generation carbon capture systems,” according to a press release.

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Seven projects were chosen for the investment and the highest grant of $10 million will go to RTI International to expand on projects they have worked on with the department in the past.

The investment was just the latest in a series of Funding Opportunity Announcements made by the Energy Department in the past week. The department on Friday also announced plans to invest $11.5 million to help tribes tap into energy resources on their lands.

According to the department, almost 30 of the coal reserves west of the Mississippi river, 50 percent of uranium reserves, and 20 percent of oil and gas reserves are on tribal lands but 86 percent of the lands are currently untapped.

The new investment aims to install energy systems for “autonomous operation” and adopt energy efficiency measures on tribal lands, according to a deartment release.

On Thursday, the Energy Department announced that nine projects focused on coal industry development and innovation will receive $6.5 million dollars in federal funding under a Funding Opportunity Announcement. The investment was part of a larger $50 million effort announced by the department in August to support the development, design and construction of “transformational coal technologies.”