Energy Department representatives visit “Deep Orange 5,” the fifth version of Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research’s (CU-ICAR) industry-sponsored and student-led vehicle project. DeepOrange is a an innovative approach to engineering education, teaching graduate students a complete product development process. | Photo Credit: CU-ICAR

Dr. David Danielson, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). | Photo Credit: CU-ICAR

Dr. David Danielson (right), Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, at General Electric's high-efficiency gas turbine manufacturing facility in Greenville, South Carolina. | Photo by Courtney Hinkle, Energy Department

Representatives of the Energy Department and Suniva, Inc. at Suniva's photovoltaic cell manufacturing facility in Norcross, Georgia. | Photo by Brian Walker, Energy Department

At the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR), Assistant Secretary David Danielson and Dr. Robert Prucka, Professor in the Clemson University Automotive Engineering Department, discuss the Recirculated Exhaust Gas Intake Sensor, which is designed to cost-effectively improve automobile efficiency. | Photo Credit: CU-ICAR

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Visit to the Southeastern United States Highlights Clean Energy Manufacturing Growth and Innovation at Work

As the world continues to demand cleaner and more efficient energy solutions, the economic opportunity presented by rapidly growing, global clean energy markets is tremendous.

Two years ago, I helped launch the Energy Department’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative (CEMI) to ensure that the United States competes and wins a large and growing share of the clean energy manufacturing economic opportunity and jobs that will come with the clean energy revolution.

Through CEMI, the Department is investing in a wide array of innovative public-private partnerships to bolster U.S. competitiveness in making clean energy products and increase our manufacturing competitiveness in industries across the board through improvements in energy efficiency and energy cost reductions. As just one example, the Department is investing in the build-out of the President’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation—having already established significant new manufacturing innovation institutes in the advanced manufacturing technology areas of next-generation power electronics and advanced composites—and plans to establish at least two more new institutes in the near future.

Each year since the launch of CEMI, we have held an annual “CEMI Regional Summit” in different parts of the country to connect regional stakeholders with the Department’s clean energy manufacturing resources, and to get feedback from regional experts on how CEMI can most effectively work with its partners to continue to improve U.S. manufacturing competitiveness.

Earlier this month, I spent a week in the Southeast visiting leading regional clean energy manufacturing facilities, capped off by the CEMI Southeast Regional Summit held in Atlanta, Georgia. The summit brought together more than 200 regional clean energy manufacturing leaders, and featured keynote addresses by Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson, and Jay Rogers, the founder and CEO of Local Motors, an innovative new company that successfully partnered with CEMI to build the world’s first ever 3D-printed car. The summit highlighted the region’s growing strength in building efficient automobiles, advanced high-efficiency gas turbines, advanced composites, and a number of other cutting-edge clean energy technologies.

In addition to the summit, I had the opportunity to meet with a number of organizations that are leading the charge in establishing the United States as a global leader in clean energy manufacturing. I visited our research and development (R&D) partner General Electric’s (GE) high-efficiency gas turbine manufacturing facility in Greenville, South Carolina, the largest manufacturing facility of its kind in the world. It’s also home to GE’s first-of-a-kind Advanced Manufacturing Works R&D center focused on applying new advanced manufacturing technologies like additive manufacturing and advanced composites to develop GE’s next-generation gas turbine technology.

Our next stop in Greenville was to another important Energy Department R&D partner site, the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). The automotive industry in South Carolina is booming, leading more manufacturers to set up shop—in turn creating a growing demand for a skilled workforce and cutting-edge regional R&D capabilities. I had the pleasure of touring this state-of-the-art facility with Clemson President Jim Clements. CU-ICAR truly represents a unique new collaboration model at the center of this automotive innovation hub. By supporting public-private collaboration in world-class labs, CU-ICAR is playing a key role in advancing cutting-edge automotive technologies for a future-focused automotive sector in the Southeast.

I also visited the headquarters and cell manufacturing facilities of Suniva, Inc., an advanced U.S.-based high-efficiency solar cell and module manufacturer based in Norcross, Georgia. Solar manufacturing in the United States is making a comeback thanks to Energy Department-supported companies like Suniva that are leading the way in inventing and manufacturing differentiated high-quality, high-efficiency new solar module technologies. (Suniva has its origins in Energy Department-supported solar R&D at Georgia Tech going back to the 1990s.) Through a recent competitive Energy Department award, Suniva is combining its expertise with Georgia Tech’s to develop even lower-cost, higher-efficiency solar technologies that will help make solar electricity cost-competitive with other sources of energy.

I ended my Southeast CEMI swing with an illuminating roundtable discussion with the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There, we connected with nearly twenty energy company executives who discussed how the advanced energy sector is driving economic growth all across the state. This thriving sector supports 325,000 jobs, while contributing $33.4 billion to the state gross domestic product and $820 million in sales tax revenue to state and local governments.

CEMI’s next big event is the American Energy and Manufacturing Competitiveness Summit, organized in partnership with the Council on Competitiveness, on September 15 in Washington, D.C. I hope to see many of you there as we continue to push forward this critical public-private partnership and ensure that the United States leads the way in the burgeoning global clean energy manufacturing sector.