The U.S. Department of Energy's announcement last month that it will spend $38 million to decarbonize four of its 17 national laboratories is the agency "leading by example" to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, DOE Secretary, Jennifer M. Granholm, said in a May 25 news release.
The initiative to decarbonize its national laboratories, Net Zero Labs, is an attempt to produce solutions for "hard-to-decarbonize industries" and for uses in other agency facilities, as well as federal, state, and local governments, the release stated.
"Transitioning to a net-zero future will require slashing carbon pollution across all industries — from shipping to manufacturing to construction, and even the operation of our national laboratories," Granholm said. "DOE's National Labs are leading by example to address some of the most energy-intensive, hardest-to-decarbonize federal facilities to reduce our nation's carbon footprint — mitigating the disastrous impacts of climate change, lowering energy costs, and supporting the growing clean energy workforce."
Net Zero Labs is intended to provide a model that can then be replicated, and the agency likely will approve additional funds "on a competitive basis" to implement similar initiatives in the rest of its national laboratories, according to the release.
The goal is to identify decarbonization methods to help reach President Joe Biden's goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the department said.
The four DOE facilities participating in the initial pilot are Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho; the National Energy Technology Laboratory's campuses in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Morgantown, West Virginia and Albany, Oregon; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado; and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.
All four will be "taking proactive steps to harness and produce technology at their facilities to drive down their carbon emissions," the release stated.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado will work to lower costs while increasing "scale of technologies to make, store, move, and use hydrogen across multiple energy sectors," the release stated.
The Colorado facility is on its way to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2040 and the Net-Zero Labs Initiative "is an important milestone" toward that goal, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in the release.
"The Biden administration is following Colorado's example of greening government and committing to saving people money, so moving Department of Energy national laboratories toward net-zero greenhouse gas emissions is good for our economy and future generations," Polis said.
