Above: Assistant Secretary David Danielson (center) with Energy Department officials and partners at the United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford, Connecticut. Photo courtesy of United Technologies Research Center.

One of the primary goals of the Energy Department's Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI) is to foster a broad dialogue with top industry leaders and key stakeholders on how we can tackle our country’s clean energy manufacturing challenges together.

One of our most effective ways of engaging in these discussions is through what we call “CEMI Days”, in which key leadership and staff from the Energy Department visit leading American manufacturing companies to collect candid input from industry thought leaders, share information about the wealth of opportunities and resources available through partnerships with the Energy Department, and discuss mutual strategies and R&D priorities for increasing U.S. manufacturing competitiveness industry-wide.

At the latest CEMI Day we organized earlier this month, my team and I met with manufacturing leaders at United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) and United Technologies Corporation (UTC) in East Hartford, Connecticut. Along with several of my colleagues, I shared what we’re doing to build up our national R&D capacity and innovation infrastructure to bolster American competitiveness in manufacturing. We learned insights from our industry partners on the resources and partnerships that they need to outcompete their rivals around the world — and how we can streamline our processes at the Energy Department to be an even more effective partner for industry going forward. At the Department, we are working with UTC to develop a wide variety of next generation clean energy technologies, from 3D printed motors to dramatically more efficient and zero global-warming potential solid state air conditioning technologies.

Since we launched CEMI almost three years ago, we’ve met with thousands such companies and innovators all around the country to engage them around the multi-trillion dollar opportunity in clean energy manufacturing. Our mission is to help them capture this generational opportunity for the U.S. to rebuild our manufacturing prowess.

In addition to UTC, my team and I have visited directly with leaders from industrial companies like General Electric, Dow Chemical, ArcelorMittal, Dow Corning, PPG, Alcoa, General Motors, Ford, FCA, and many others to inform our strategies and encourage productive new R&D partnerships. We’ve organized regional CEMI summits in Toledo, OH; San Francisco, CA; and Atlanta, GA. Through our American Energy & Manufacturing Competitiveness Partnership (AEMC) with the Council on Competitiveness, we’ve also organized three national AEMC summits in Washington, DC, as well as dozens of executive dialogues all around country.

This engagement comes at an important time. U.S. factories have an historic opportunity to create American leadership in the rapid transition to a global clean energy economy. Our global population is projected to increase 30% by 2050 — with the average person consuming more than 5 times more energy on average than they do today. Meanwhile, tackling our global climate crisis will require the world to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% or more below current levels. The needs and the opportunities are truly mammoth.

Clean energy manufacturing – producing clean energy technologies, investing in more efficient factories, and leveraging domestic energy sources – is already paying enormous dividends for the U.S. economy and is creating large numbers of good paying American jobs.

CEMI is helping cultivate these jobs of tomorrow by focusing experts from across the public and private sectors on the nation’s opportunity to be the leader in clean energy manufacturing. The initiative concentrates on accelerating American innovation leadership in advanced clean energy manufacturing technologies. This includes supporting the development of the President’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation – consisting of major new advanced manufacturing innovation centers that are working on everything from developing next generation lightweight metals to cost-effective fuel efficient cars to taller wind turbines to next generation power electronic technology that will revolutionize the way we control and operate our nation’s grid in the years ahead. These hubs have brought hundreds of businesses, universities, and state, local and federal governments to work together to create American leadership in a wide array of the advanced manufacturing technologies that will define our energy future.

The Energy Department is also supporting high-impact clean energy manufacturing R&D outside of these manufacturing hubs. A great example is SunShot awardee Suniva, a U.S. manufacturer of high efficiency crystalline silicone solar cells and modules that grew out of Energy Department-funded research at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Suniva is leveraging the solar energy market’s rapid growth and its innovative technology R&D to create American jobs and accelerate development of cost-competitive solar solutions. It’s expanding its manufacturing capacity at its headquarters, creating up to 500 new jobs in Norcross, Georgia. The company is also opening its second manufacturing facility in Michigan, creating another 350 jobs.

As another example, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, General Motors, TWB Company, and Alcoa recently worked together to demonstrate a game-changing welding process that will expand the use of lightweight aluminum in cars and trucks. The process can deliver a car door inner panel that is 62% lighter and 25% cheaper than those produced with current manufacturing methods. This technology is so promising that a major supplier has invested in new equipment to manufacture aluminum components using this process.

Energy Department-backed public-private partnerships in clean energy manufacturing and energy technology R&D are strengthening the manufacturing sector and saving Americans money, whether on their utility bills or at the gas pump. Moreover, these investments are building on the strengths of the world’s most productive workforce and positioning U.S. industry at the leading edge of advanced manufacturing technologies – so that in the years ahead, more and more clean energy products sold around the world will be stamped, “Made in America.”

For more information about CEMI, I encourage you to contact the CEMI team or visit CEMI's website.