In an effort to speed up deployment of offshore wind the Department of Energy announced $43 million in awards for research on a range of topics from computer modeling to affects of wind turbines on birds and bats.
The awards to universities including the University of Minnesota, Penn State, Indiana University and the University of Michigan will allow these schools, and their students and faculty, to be part of building a clean energy future - preparing young people for jobs in clean tech and providing our nation with critical data on how to transition beyond coal and other dirty fuels.
Focusing university resources on clean energy development, both on campus and through research will accelerate creating a clean energy economy that's better for our health -- and make our schools global leaders.
This is in stark contrast to schools (some of the same!) who are stuck in the past still funneling valuable resources into such obviously short-sighted and failing fields as "clean coal" research. With one "clean coal" failure after another including AEP's recent cancellation of what was supposed to be "the nation’s most prominent effort to capture carbon dioxide from an existing coal-burning power plant" it couldn't be more clear that coal in any form is the wrong direction for our institutions of higher education.
So the question stands - will our schools be leaders in creating a clean energy future or stuck in the past chasing fleeting dollars from a scrambling coal industry?
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