DOE Announces EcoCAR Mobility Challenge Year One Champion

On May 22, 2019, DOE EERE announced Ohio State University’s year one win of the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge.  The EcoCAR competition, a four-year collegiate engineering competition focused on advancing energy technologies in the transportation sector, challenges universities to apply advanced propulsion systems, electrification, and other innovative technologies to transform their vehicles from design concept into reality.  Sponsored by General Motors and MathWorks, the teams have a total of four years (2018-2022) to build an energy efficient, connected, and semi-automated vehicle for the car sharing market. The program builds on DOE’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTC) by providing the student teams with competition management, team evaluation, and logistical support throughout its four years.

DOE Dedicates May And June To Renewable Biomass Feedstocks

On May 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced that, in partnership with its National Laboratories, it is dedicating the months of May and June to the public exploration of renewable biomass feedstocks used for the production of biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower in support of the U.S. bioeconomy. This means that during the months of May and June 2019, BETO will be sharing information on “Bioenergy Feedstocks Out Your Window” via social media and offering webinars on new research. The June webinars will focus on research strategies that enable supply-chain improvements in biomass quality and consistency through blending, preprocessing, diversity, and landscape design in development of conversion-ready, lignocellulosic feedstocks for production of biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts.