EnergizeTN News

(Oak Ridger) The White House announced Tuesday that Oak Ridge National Laboratory will be home to two of 46 new multi-million-dollar Energy Frontier Research Centers. The two ORNL Energy Frontier Center projects are the Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport (FIRST) Center and the Energy Frontier Center for Defect Physics in Structural Materials…Energy storage and material properties are key pieces to the nation’s energy puzzle,” Michelle Buchanan, ORNL associate laboratory director for physical sciences, was quoted as saying in the release. ORNL has a unique blend of scientific expertise, facilities and leadership needed to address these challenges. We are honored to receive these awards and eager to go to work.”…4/29

(Knoxville News Sentinel) TVA has released details of an expanded renewable-energy program, offering more incentives such as $1,000 toward installation costs for solar, wind, biomass and other renewable-energy systems that homes and businesses can use to produce electricity and sell it to TVA…4/30

(AIP) The week of April 20 was a busy one for Chairman Henry Waxman???s (D-CA) House Energy and Commerce Committee.?? Waxman and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey???s (D-MA) 648-page American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 was praised, questioned and condemned by 67 witnesses across four days of hearings.?? The comments of Secretary of Energy Steven Chu were of particular interest…4/29

(Oak Ridger) Today, the National Trust for Historic Preservation will spotlight the fate of the Manhattan Project properties around the country with its 2009 list of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places. The list includes the Manhattan Project’s Enola Gay hangar at the Historic Westover Airfield in Westover, Utah, and highlights the critical need to preserve the properties of the Manhattan Project, the top-secret effort to develop the world’s first atomic bomb…4/28

(VUCast) A team of Vanderbilt engineers will play a key role in a new federal effort to significantly improve our understanding of how gases and liquids interact with solid surfaces ??? basic studies that have potential applications ranging from better batteries to more efficient methods for converting solar and electrical energy into fuel, improved fuel cells and enhancing the corrosion resistance of materials. That is the focus of a new multi-million-dollar Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) announced by the White House on April 27. The Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport (FIRST) Center is one of two such centers that the Department of Energy is establishing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and one of 46 that it is setting up nationwide…4/29

(Knoxville News Sentinel) Three weeks after the Department of Energy announced that Oak Ridge would receive $755 million in stimulus money for shovel-ready environmental cleanup projects, the money has finally arrived - at least the first allotment. We have received $604 million, DOE spokesman John Shewairy said Wednesday. That’s 80 percent of the total money that’s targeted for Oak Ridge projects. DOE earlier said that 20 percent would be held back in Washington and distributed later, based on each site’s progress and efficiency in conducting the stimulus-funded work…Shewairy said the Oak Ridge contractors can now proceed with their planned work, which includes the cleanup and dismantling of old buildings at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex…4/30