09.09.14

Durbin, Foster, Schakowsky Announce More Than $8.4 Million in Funding To Illinois Schools To Study Cutting Edge Clean Energy Technologies

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Representative Bill Foster (D-IL) and Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) announced today that the Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded grants totaling $8,435,000 to research centers at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Today’s funding will be used to study, research and develop cutting edge forms of clean energy.

 

“With the support of federal funding, scientific discoveries are revolutionizing our world, helping to drive our economy, and changing the way we conserve and use energy resources,” Durbin said. “Today’s announcement ensures we are maintaining a strong commitment to Illinois’ universities, and the researchers there, who keep America at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation.”

 

“I am pleased to announce this investment in research from the Department of Energy,” said Foster. "For 20 years, I conducted research in high-energy particle physics at Fermi National Laboratory and I know firsthand how important grants like this are to supporting our long-term competitiveness in the global economy. Investing in federal research and development is one of the highest return investments we can make as a nation and is critical to supporting American innovation. "

 

“We know that the 21st century economy will be a green economy.  Increased global research and development has made clean energy more affordable and more abundant than ever, but we need strong federal investment to ensure that the United States will lead the world in these promising technologies – and the jobs they support – for decades to come. I am proud that my alma mater, the University of Illinois, and Northwestern University, which I represent in Congress, were able to win these important DOE Grants, and I look forward to following the success of both universities in leveraging these research dollars to promote jobs, public health, and the environment,” Schakowsky said.

 

Under this announcement, Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) will be awarded a total of $5,985,000 in funding to study and research solar energy sciences and materials for solar energy. $2,985,000 was awarded to the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Research (ANSER) Center, which focuses on researching the field of solar energy sciences and how solar power can be used to develop different forms of renewable energy technologies.

Also under this announcement, University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, Illinois) will be awarded $2,450,000 in funding to study carbon dioxide capture and storage.

Today’s funding is part of a June announcement that the DOE would award $100 million to Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) to help spur scientific breakthrough and discovery. 32 projects received funding were competitively selected from more than 200 proposals. Funding amounts were unknown until recently.