The U.S. Department of Energy is investing tens of millions of dollars in colleges and universities around the country to bolster a program designed to help small manufacturers identify ways they can cut costs by reducing waste and saving energy.
The Energy Department said on Friday that Oklahoma State University, Georgia Tech University, Lehigh University, Texas A&M University and San Francisco State University will be the prime recipients of a combined $18.7 million in funding authorized by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for new regional, Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs).
Three out of five of the new programs have specific expertise in climate mitigation strategies, including energy management, industrial electrification, industrial decarbonization, resiliency planning, renewable energy, and waste and water management, according to the Energy Department.
At the universities, teams perform assessments that will typically identify more than $130,000 in potential annual savings for small manufacturers. In addition to focusing on waste reduction and energy savings, the assessments look at improved productivity and competitiveness.
Small manufacturers typically implement 60% of the recommendations that IACs make in the first year, the DOE says. High upfront costs can stand in the way of them implementing all of the recommendations. To address this, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $400 million in grants available to small manufacturers to make the necessary efficiency-enhancing and greenhouse gas-reducing investments.
Most of the new universities, Texas A&M being the exception, will have regional partner institutions, which may also get some of the funding.
The IAC at Georgia Tech in Atlanta will focus on energy management and industrial electrification. The program at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, will specialize in industrial decarbonization, electrification, and resiliency planning. San Francisco State University’s center will study renewable energy, energy demand management, thermal systems design, and waste and water management, especially in the Western U.S.
The other two IACs are focused on expanding and improving the program, which has already been operating at 37 universities in 28 states. So far, the program has provided 20,000 assessments since 1976. Between 2014 and 2020, the IAC program was able to identify 2.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide abatement opportunities, the equivalent of the amount of electricity used by 450,000 homes in a year, according to a 2022 impact study, the DOE says.
The IAC at Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, will look to bring unions, trade schools, and community colleges into the network. And at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, the goal will be to improve the technology used in these manufacturing assessments with mobile applications, drones, and virtual and augmented reality.
For manufacturers to qualify for a free assessment, they must have annual sales of under $250 million, fewer than 500 employees at the manufacturing facility and annual energy bills between $100,000 and $3.5 million. About 500 students a year participate in the manufacturer assessments.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement that the investment is designed to “ensure America’s global leadership in advanced manufacturing and green building technologies.”
In addition to the new centers, the Department of Energy said on Friday that it’s using $54 million, also authorized by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to expand the IAC programs to community colleges, trade schools, and union training institutes. The assessment will be broadened to include energy-efficient building design and operation.
Of the 37 universities that were already part of the manufacturing assessment program, 17 had been participating in a pilot to expand it into energy-efficient building design and operation. This program will now be official and known as the Building Training and Assessment Centers.
