demonstration and deployment,
supply chains,
innovative procurement,
industrial policy
Alice Wu is a Senior Associate at the Federation of American Scientists, specializing in clean energy policy. She works on clean energy deployment and supply chains, with a focus on underinvested domestic industries, such as critical minerals, next-generation geothermal energy, and low-carbon concrete. Alice has expertise in innovative procurement and flexible financial mechanisms for supporting the development of clean energy infrastructure projects. Her background is in electrical engineering. Prior to joining FAS, she conducted research on solar cells as a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alice received her S.M. in Electrical Engineering from MIT and her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.
The current planned capacity for lithium processing in the U.S. is on track to meet demand from domestic battery factories. However, current planned capacity for nickel, cobalt, and graphite still fall well short of future demand.
The Administration has continued to push for further clean energy investments, but faces a difficult fiscal environment in Congress – which has meant shortfalls for many priority areas like funding for CHIPS and Science.
Science funding agencies are biased against risk, making transformative research difficult to fund. Forecast-based approaches to grantmaking could improve funding outcomes for high-risk, high-reward research.
Cement and concrete production is one of the hardest industries to decarbonize. Using its Other Transactions Authority, DOE could design a demand-support program involving double-sided auctions, contracts for difference, or price and volume guarantees.
Here’s how the Department of Energy can utilize Other Transaction Authority to invest in and kickstart a new era of abundant and firm geothermal energy.
Common frameworks for evaluating proposals leave this utility function implicit, often evaluating aspects of risk, uncertainty, and potential value independently and qualitatively.
Successful commercialization efforts have now grown across the country, but what do they have in common, and why do they work? Our experts weigh in.
The U.S. federal government is the largest funder of scientific research in the world — but it is risk-averse to a fault. New approaches to peer review can bring American research back to the bleeding edge.
The Biden Administration should undertake a three-pronged strategy for leveraging the power of positive tipping points to create a larger-than-anticipated return on investment in the transition to a clean energy future.
To address the gap between academic and commercial incentives, the U.S. government should fund centralized research programs, known as FROs, to address well-defined challenges.
Operation Warp Speed’s unique success is thanks to strong public-private partnerships, effective coordination, and structured leadership. Here’s how to replicate the OWS model for future success.
The NIH funds the world’s most innovative biomedical research, but rising administrative burden is slowing down the speed of breakthroughs.