DOE Announces up to $52.5 Million for Concentrating Solar Power Research and Development

Posted on July 15, 2009October 17, 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy today announced plans to provide up to $52.5 million to research, develop, and demonstrate Concentrating Solar Power systems capable of providing low-cost electrical power both day and night. Today’s announcement underscores the Obama Administration’s commitment to creating jobs and saving money, making electricity generated from solar energy competitive with conventional grid electricity.

“Low-cost renewable energy generation that includes energy storage is one key to our efforts to diversify domestic energy sources and create new jobs,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. “By investing in the development of low-cost solar technologies we can pave the way toward faster deployment of carbon-free, large-scale energy sources.”

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies concentrate the sun’s energy and capture that energy as heat, which then drives an engine or turbine to produce electrical power. CSP plants can include low-cost energy storage, which allows them to provide electricity even when the sun is not shining. CSP technologies currently used in utility-scale power plants typically do not have the capability/capacity for storage, operating only during daytime hours. These projects will seek to improve technology and novel system designs to extend operation to an average of about 18 hours per day, a level of production that would make it possible for a CSP plant to displace a traditional coal power plant.

The competitive funding opportunity involves two areas:

Research and development of concepts and components for a CSP system that enables a plant to produce low-cost electricity at least 18 hours of the day.
Evaluation of the feasibility and development of a prototype complete CSP system capable of operating at least 18 hours per day while generating low-cost power.

Projects are based upon continuing annual appropriations. DOE anticipates making up to 13 project awards totaling up to $52.5 million.

Learn more about US Department of Energy grant opportunities.

Federal Relations Brown Bag Lunch Sessions

Posted on July 15, 2009October 17, 2012

The UW Office of Federal Relations invites participation in a brown bag lunch to discuss our ongoing FY10 and anticipated FY11 federal strategies. The informal sessions serves as an opportunity to receive an update on developments in DC that impact the higher education community in general and our Institution in particular. Topics for discussion will include:

Overview of the Federal Legislative (Policy and Appropriations) Process –As Necessary
Update on the Ongoing Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations Process
o UW Specific Projects
o Federal Agency/Program Funding Levels -of Interest to UW
Update on Obama Legislative Agenda
o   Student Aid
o   Clean Energy
o   Health Reform
Preparation for the Fiscal Year 2011 Appropriations Process
o   New Guidelines for Submitting UW Specific Appropriations Requests
o   Agency/Programmatic Recommendations
o   Timeline
Advocacy Tools
o   Federal Agenda Booklet
o   DC Hill Visits
o   Letters of Support to/from WA Delegation
o   Campus/Site Visits by Members
o   UW Office of Federal Relations
Open Forum

Sessions:

UW Tacoma- Tuesday August 4th, 11:00am-12:30pm, UWT Cherry Parkes 206C

UW Seattle- Wednesday August 5th, 12:00pm-1:30pm, UW Seattle Gerberding 142

UW Bothell- Thursday August 6th, Time TBD, UWB Room TBD

The Office of Federal Relations will conduct these sessions periodically on the three campuses -as warranted by events in DC. Please note that our team will also be available for individual meetings – as necessary – during the August congressional recess and going forward.

If you plan to attend the brown bag discussion, please RSVP by Friday July 24 to jnurse@u.washington.edu.

House Democrats Release Health Care Legislation

Posted on July 15, 2009October 17, 2012

Yesterday, House Democrats finally unveiled their comprehensive health care overhaul legislation, including details on how they intend to pay for it. For the most part, the $1 trillion-plus plan would be paid for through a surtax on upper incomes (families with adjusted gross incomes of more than $350,000) and by more than $500 billion in savings from Medicare over 10 years.

On the Medicare side, some providers would see their Medicare payouts cut directly (with Medicare Advantage seeing a $156 billion reduction). And in other areas, Medicare would “bundle” payments for a number of related services, with the goal of providing better, less costly care for patients. Currently, Medicare typically reimburses providers for every procedure or test they do.

Prevention and wellness measures of the bill include:

Expansion of Community Health Centers;
Prohibition of cost-sharing for preventive services;
Creation of community-based programs to deliver prevention and wellness services;
A focus on community-based programs and new data collection efforts to better identify and address racial, ethnic, regional and other health disparities;
Funding to strengthen state, local, tribal and territorial public health departments and programs.

The bill expands the health care workforce through:

Increased funding for the National Health Service Corp;
More training of primary care doctors and an expansion of the pipeline of individuals going into health professions, including primary care, nursing and public health;
Greater support for workforce diversity;
Expansion of scholarships and loans for individuals in needed professions and shortage areas;
Encouragement of training of primary care physicians by taking steps to increase physician training outside the hospital, where most primary care is delivered, and redistributes unfilled graduate medical education residency slots for purposes of training more primary care physicians. The proposal also improves accountability for graduate medical education funding to ensure that physicians are trained with the skills needed to practice health care in the 21st century.

Obama Unveils Community College Initiative

Posted on July 14, 2009October 17, 2012

Today, President Obama will unveil a $12 billion initiative to boost community colleges and move the US toward his goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. President Obama’s will include the following:

$9 billion will go mainly for “challenge grants” awarded on a competitive basis to encourage community colleges to propose and launch innovative new programs. Some of the $9 billion would fund programs to address the problem of students dropping out of college.
$2.5 billion would be used as seed money to generate $10 billion in renovation and construction at community colleges.
Another $500 million would be used to develop online courses and materials to improve student learning, including artificial intelligence tutoring and multimedia courses.

President Obama’s Statement and Fact Sheet

Seen in DC

Posted on July 13, 2009October 17, 2012

Dr. Mari Kitahata, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Clinical Epidemiolgy and Health Services Research at the UW Center for AIDS Research was in DC on June 4th to participate in the HIV Medicine Association Advocacy Day. She was able to meet with several members to discuss health care reform, federal policy positions and funding concerns.

On June 17 and 18, Dean Pat Wasley was in Washington DC to participate in the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) Day on the Hill. Dean Wasley participated in a Congressional briefing and also met with a few of the Washington state delegation to share information on initiatives and projects that exemplify reform in teacher preparation.

Note: Please contact the UW Office of Federal Relations to assist in scheduling visits to Washington state delegation offices. 202-624-1420.

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