42 U.S.C. § 17111 — Future of industry program

(a) Definitions: This section defines five terms. An "eligible entity" is an energy-intensive industry itself, a national trade association representing one, or a person the Secretary^* says is acting on behalf of one or more energy-intensive industries or sectors. An "energy-intensive industry" is any industry that uses a lot of energy in its main business, including information technology (including data centers), consumer product manufacturing, food processing, materials manufacturers such as aluminum, chemicals, forest and paper products, metal casting, glass, petroleum refining, mining, and steel, water and wastewater treatment^* facilities, and any other industry the Secretary names. "Feedstock" means the raw material used in manufacturing, chemical, and biological processes. A "partnership" is an energy efficiency partnership set up under subsection (c)(1)(A). The "program" is the energy-intensive industries program set up under subsection (b).

(b) Establishment of program: The Secretary of Energy must create a program, working with energy-intensive industries and their national trade associations, to support, research, develop, and promote new materials, processes, technologies, and techniques. The goal is to make U.S. industrial and commercial sectors both more energy efficient and more economically competitive.

(c) Partnerships: As part of the program, the Secretary must form energy efficiency partnerships with eligible entities to research, develop, and demonstrate new processes, technologies, and practices^* that significantly improve how efficiently energy-intensive industries use equipment and run processes. This includes work to increase efficiency in industrial processes and facilities, to develop advanced technologies that cut energy intensity and improve environmental performance, and to promote the use of those processes and technologies. Activities that can be funded through a partnership include feedstock and recycling research aimed at finding more energy-efficient feedstock sources and better ways to recover feedstock from waste streams; research into using alternative energy sources for heat, power, and feedstocks; research to improve efficiency in steam, power, control systems, and other manufacturing processes; energy efficiency and sustainability assessments that help industrial and commercial sectors evaluate their own processes and energy needs; work to bring efficiency innovations into energy-intensive commercial uses; and any other activity the Secretary decides is appropriate. To get funding, a partnership must submit a proposal describing its planned research, development, or demonstration work. The Secretary reviews each proposal's scientific, technical, and commercial merit and either approves or disapproves it, and funding is awarded competitively. The Secretary must also require cost sharing for this work, under the rules in section 16352.

(d) Grants: The Secretary may separately award competitive grants for innovative technology research, development, and demonstration projects to universities, individual inventors, and small companies, based on their energy savings potential, commercial viability, and technical merit.

(e) Authorization of appropriations: Congress authorized $184,000,000 for fiscal year 2008, $190,000,000 for 2009, $196,000,000 for 2010, $202,000,000 for 2011, and $208,000,000 for 2012, plus whatever amount is necessary for 2013 and every year after that. At least 50 percent of this money must go toward paying the Federal government's share of partnership activities described in subsection (c). The Secretary must also coordinate this section's work with other Department of Energy and Federal programs so effort is not duplicated.