Source: AlertNet
24 January 2011 - On January 18, at a ceremony at the U.S.-China Strategic Forum on Clean Energy Cooperation in Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and China’s energy minister Zhang Guogao and science and technology minister Wan Gang signed an agreement to advance the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC). The agreement was announced as part of a “new era” of clean energy cooperation, as Jon Huntsman, U.S. ambassador to China, put it at the event.
The U.S. and Chinese governments have been cooperating on clean energy technologies for decades, but the CERC program arguably represents a fundamentally new way of working together. In the past, collaboration on clean energy has taken place on a government-to-government, academic-to-academic, and business-to-business basis. But this program integrates activities into what both sides have said they wanted for a long time - a genuine public-private partnership.
The program- funded by a bilateral $150 million in public-private funding- includes research groups, or “consortia,” focused on building efficiency, electric vehicles, and advanced coal technologies, including carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS). Each consortium is led by a research institution and includes private sector partners— and the World Resources Institute is one of groups focusing on advanced coal and CCS.
The collaboration is significant since both countries face critical choices in their energy mix, and technology and policy choices. Both countries continue to be heavily dependent on coal, as the top two coal consumers in the world. And, both countries stand to benefit from the experience and lessons of this collaborative initiative.
For the complete article, please see AlertNet.
On January 18, at a ceremony at the U.S.-China Strategic Forum on Clean Energy Cooperation in Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and China’s energy minister Zhang Guogao and science and technology minister Wan Gang signed an agreement to advance the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC). The agreement was announced as part of a “new era” of clean energy cooperation, as Jon Huntsman, U.S. ambassador to China, put it at the event.
The U.S. and Chinese governments have been cooperating on clean energy technologies for decades, but the CERC program arguably represents a fundamentally new way of working together. In the past, collaboration on clean energy has taken place on a government-to-government, academic-to-academic, and business-to-business basis. But this program integrates activities into what both sides have said they wanted for a long time - a genuine public-private partnership.
The program- funded by a bilateral $150 million in public-private funding- includes research groups, or “consortia,” focused on building efficiency, electric vehicles, and advanced coal technologies, including carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS). Each consortium is led by a research institution and includes private sector partners— and the World Resources Institute is one of groups focusing on advanced coal and CCS.
The collaboration is significant since both countries face critical choices in their energy mix, and technology and policy choices. Both countries continue to be heavily dependent on coal, as the top two coal consumers in the world. And, both countries stand to benefit from the experience and lessons of this collaborative initiative.
