U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette on May 24 unveiled the launch of two new clean energy initiatives at the ninth Clean Energy Ministerial in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Department of Energy noted that both the “Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future (NICE Future)” initiative and the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) initiative were originally proposed by Secretary of Energy Rick Perry at last year’s CEM meeting in Beijing, China. This year, Brouillette announced that both initiatives will kick into full effect.
DOE noted that the NICE Future Initiative’s mission is to highlight the value of nuclear energy as a clean, reliable energy source. “The initiative is a partnership led by the United States, Canada, and Japan that will address improved power system integration through innovative, advanced energy systems and applications, such as nuclear-renewable systems. It will also foster a reliable clean energy supply, sustained economic growth, and responsible environmental stewardship,” the DOE said in a news release.
Other confirmed participants in the NICE Future Initiative include South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Federation, Poland, Argentina, and Romania. Together, these countries plan to implement a portfolio of activities that will call attention to specific areas of opportunity for innovative nuclear technologies, assess emerging applications such as coordinated nuclear-renewables systems, and support international exchange of policy, innovation and investment, according to DOE.
DOE said that the CCUS initiative will focus on strengthening the framework for building collaborative partnerships on CCUS between the public and private sectors. It will also bolster and complement existing CCUS efforts led by the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the IEA’s Greenhouse Gas R&D Program, Mission Innovation and the Global CCS Institute.
Led by the United States, Norway, and Saudi Arabia, other international partners that have joined this initiative include Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom; as well as the European Commission.
Additional information about the NICE Future initiative is available here, while further details about the CCUS initiative are available here.
