LENR-Gen Module needs your vote

George Miley‘s LENUCO company is vying for a chance to speak and “pitch” for funding to develop the LENR-Gen module, this time, from private investment representatives.

LENUCO has previously attempted to access ARPA-E funding at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.

LENR-Gen modules are, according to Miley, “LENR Power Units [that] use pressurized hydrogen–nickel nanoparticles undergoing low energy nuclear reactions to create a very high energy density heat source configured for co-generation power for home or industrial distributed power.”

Support LENR research and VOTE HERE.

Then check for confirmation email so your vote counts. Didn’t get it? Check your Junk (Spam) folder.

Voting ends March 15.

From the website’s http://futureenergy.ultralightstartups.com/pages/timeline:
To participate in the Future Energy Pitching Event at MIT on April 4, 2013, companies must apply for consideration. Future Energy is opening the selection process to the public and the energy community through a crowdvoting contest. The two startups that receive the most votes during the crowdvoting contest will receive automatic bids to present at the Future Energy event at MIT on April 4, 2013.

March 1: Crowd Voting Opens
Future Energy will pre-select startups to take part in the crowdvoting contest
Pre-selected startups will be invited to create profiles on the Future Energy crowdvoting platform. Sign In Here
Voting and rating opens to the public

March 6: Pitching Application Closes
Last day to apply to pitch at the April 4 Future Energy event at MIT.
Click here to apply to pitch at other Future Energy events

March 15: Crowd Voting Contest Ends
The startups with the most votes will be announced. These companies will be guaranteed two of the eight pitching spots at the Future Energy Pitching Event at MIT on April 4, 2013.

Give LENR a hearing – vote NOW!

ARPA-E has failed its claimed mission to support experimental research on new energy, and now forces scientists to get crowdfunding votes. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently stepped down, choosing not to serve a second term.

Cold Fusion Now expects ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar to fund LENR research, or do the same.

“LENR Distributed Power Units” from George H. Miley


New company LENUCO first reported here on Cold Fusion Now a year ago is now releasing more on its new LENR technology.

Designed by George H. Miley and his team, the LENR-Gen Module is conceived for 10 kw units, but can be scaled up for larger power needs.

VOTING has ended. No further info is to be found at this time…
Please Vote Now at Future Energy to give this project attention from ARPA-E.

Your vote will allow George Miley to speak at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit Future Energy Pitching Session on February 25, 2013 6:30-8:30pm.

From the website:

Provide one sentence describing your core technology.

LENR Power Units use pressurized hydrogen –nickel nanoparticles undergoing low energy nuclear reactions to create a very high energy density heat source configured for co-generation power for home or industrial distributed power.

Short description of your technology

The recent discovery of practical applications of low energy nuclear reactions has created much activity and interest worldwide. Several companies, including LENUCO, have entered this business. Our approach using hydrogen loaded nanoparticles to produce heat that is converted to electrical output offers many advantages. Lenuco was founded to commercialize this technology and has a two-pronged business model. One prong is to manufacture small to medium range distributed power sources for home and industrial use. The second prong is to provide develop the technology for use by in Army bases, both homeland and in forward facilities, for a main power source. Both uses capitalize on the high power density and low maintenance, radiation free, long lifetime characteristics of LENR power cells.

What is the key element of your technology that differentiates it from existing solutions

LENUCO’s LENR power source is a revolutionary new technology based on high pressure hydrogen loading of nickel alloy based nanoparticles. Heat is produced by the resulting low energy nuclear reactions through a process which avoids any significant radioactivity. Uses range from home heating to central heating units. Compared to other renewable energy, LENR power units offer two distinct advantages: 24/7 operation and higher power density, hence significantly smaller units per unit power. LENR cells also provide power without greenhouse emissions and with no significant wastes. These advantages plus minimum maintenance and long lifetime result in a distinct economic advantage over other renewable energy sources as reflected by shorter pay-back times than solar, wind or fuel cells.

LENUCO

Related

George Miley: “Let’s find out what’s there” by Ruby Carat

Session 462 Advanced Concepts: LENR, Anti-matter, and Advanced Physics

ARPA-E wants “Transformational Energy Technologies”

U.S. Schools with Cold Fusion-Friendly Faculty

$29.5 Billion requested by DoE; $0 for cold fusion

DoE 2012 Budget Highlights Cover
DoE Budget Lowlights?

The Department of Energy DoE released their FY2012 Congressional Budget Request Budget Highlights. download .pdf

“The Department’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 budget request is $29.5 billion, an 11.8 percent or $3.1 billion increase from FY 2010 current appropriation levels.”

“The central theme of this year’s budget in SC [Office of Science] is research in new technologies for a clean energy future that address competing demands on our environment,” the document states.

In FY 2012, the [SC] Department requests $5.4 billion, an increase of 9.1 percent over the FY 2010 current appropriation, to invest in basic research. The FY 2012 request supports the President’s Strategy for American Innovation, and is consistent with the goal of doubling funding at key basic research agencies, including the Office of Science. The FY 2012 Office of Science budget request supports the following objectives from the Strategy, including:
— Unleash a clean energy revolution
— Strengthen and broaden American leadership in fundamental research
— Develop an advanced information technology ecosystem
— Educate the next generation with 21st century skills and create a world-class workforce.

Program Office Highlights DoE FY2012 Budget Request page 7

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is one of many DoE offices that claim to be “Investing in Breakthrough Technology and a Clean Energy Future.” Their FY 2012 budget request for $3.2 billion is “aimed at accelerating innovation and change in the Nation’s energy economy.” This includes programs that with meet with the President’s goals of “investing in the next generation of clean energy technologies“, among other things.

But the bulk of these requested monies will fund traditional alternative energies that have been in development, and funded, for decades:

The FY 2012 budget request continues to work to transform the Nation’s energy infrastructure by investing over $1,164.9 million in a variety of renewable programs including solar ($457.0 million), wind ($126.9 million), water ($38.5 million), hydrogen ($100.5 million), biomass ($340.5 million), and geothermal ($101.5 million). Research, development, and deployment of these technologies will reduce the production of greenhouse gas emissions and revitalize an economy built on the next generation of domestic production.
Program Office Highlights DoE FY2012 Budget Request page 8

The DoE office “devoted exclusively to funding specific highrisk, high payoff, game-changing research and development projects to meet the nation’s long-term energy challenges” will get <more than half-a-billion dollars.

Specifically, ARPA-E‘s budget request, ‘detailed’ on page 23 of the document, totals $650 billion.

Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy: Transformational Research and Development
The FY 2012 budget request includes $550 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), a program launched in FY 2009 that sponsors specific high-risk and high-payoff transformational research and development projects that overcome the long-term technological barriers in the development of energy technologies to meet the Nation’s energy challenges, but that industry will not support at such an early stage.

An additional $100 million in mandatory funding is also proposed from the Wireless Innovation Fund for developing cutting-edge wireless technologies. An essential component of ARPA-E’s culture is an overarching focus on accelerating science to market.

Beyond simply funding transformational research creating revolutionary technologies, ARPA-E is dedicated to the market adoption of those new technologies that will fuel the economy, create new jobs, reduce energy imports, improve energy efficiency, reduce energy-related emissions, and ensure that the U.S. maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.

Nowhere in the budget is found the words low-energy nuclear reactions LENR, lattice-assisted nuclear reactions LANR, chemically-assisted nuclear reactions CANR, condensed matter nuclear science CMNS, nickel-hydrogen exothermic reaction Ni-H, or cold fusion, despite meeting each of the Department of Energy’s Objectives.

DoE Objective – Unleash a clean energy revolution

The revolutionary energy from cold fusion comes from the Fleischmann-Pons “Excess Heat” Effect FPE.

Hydrogen isotopesWhen hydrogen, or its isotope deuterium, is absorbed by a metal like nickel or palladium, large amounts of heat can be generated. This heat can make useful steam, hot, clean water and eventually, electricity.

Hydrogen is an element abundant in water. Access to water means access to fuel, empowering local communities with their own energy sources.

Metals like nickel are plentiful on the Earth, as well as the moon and asteroids. Costs for these and other metals will be low. And this energy is powerful enough to make ecological mining practices economically viable and standard.

Large energy returns of 25 have been published, and energy returns of 400 and higher have been demonstrated. A planned commercial steam generator is the size of a cigarette pack and expected to generate 10 kilowatts of power.

DoE Objective – Strengthen and broaden American leadership in fundamental research

Internal view of a cold fusion cell.
Internal view of an experimental cold fusion cell.

New technologies using the FPE have been developed largely by trial and error, without the benefit of a guiding theory. Basic research is sorely needed to define what the parameters for successful, and maximal, output of energy are.

Experiments have yielded multiple effects other than excess heat like transmutation, even in biological organisms, where current research may lead to ridding the world of the stockpile of radioactive waste.

The research possibilities are endless.

DoE Objective – Develop an advanced information technology ecosystem

Few could imagine the way personal computers developed in the 1980s would literally change the way we live as they did. New jobs and new businesses can thrive in a service environment for clean cold fusion energy.

As a decentralized power source, cold fusion energy devices do not need a grid delivery system. Units can be designed stand-alone and portable.

Scalable power sources could be built into even the smallest hand-held devices, providing power for the life of the device, with no need to recharge.

DoE Objective – Educate the next generation with 21st century skills and create a world-class workforce.

Pacific OceanA cold fusion economy means opportunities for training in new energy. Basic research means jobs for young scientists, with the meaningful and exciting work of building a future based on clean and plentiful energy.

Cold fusion meets the objectives, and then some.
What kind of funding would make a difference?

In an earlier interview with James Martinez, longtime researcher based in Washington D.C. David J. Nagel described a 5-year program starting at $20 million a year, ramping up to $40 million annually, an average $30 million a year for five years to bring this research to the next phase, and more importantly, as Dr. Nagel describes, bring a young group of scientists into this field of research to continue to innovate and drive the next-generation energy for our planet.

$150 million for cold fusion, half-of-one percent of DoE requested budget for 2012.

EarthThe document is filled with phrases like “energy security” and “American leadership in innovation”, visual-space divisions that are relevant no more to an alliance of peoples across this planet who live in an invisible spacetime of digital-satellite-wireless electromagnetic resonance, and who realize the need for a new arrangement for living on Earth.

Creating a new economy cannot be done by the US, or any one nation, alone. There is a new world to create, one that requires participation and cooperation from people united on every continent.

How will this move forward?

Within the context of maplines, this scenario was posited by Kiva Labs cold fusion researcher Dr. Edmund Storms, way back in 2010:

“Sooner or later scientists in some country will discover how to make cold fusion work on a commercial scale. When this happens, the countries that develop this technology will rapidly become richer and more powerful. The cost of energy for manufacturing will go down and processes that are not yet practical under most conditions, such as obtaining fresh water from the sea, will become widely used.

These benefits will cause a rapid expansion in the power and influence of the countries using this inexpensive energy source. What about the countries that do not know how to make the effect work?

Their scientists will attempt to reverse engineer the power generator, but in this field, such efforts will be difficult without an understanding of how the process works, an understanding that will not be shared by the discovers.

Also, highly developed countries will have difficulty removing their present energy infrastructure and substituting this much simpler source. So, the race is on and the potential winners are not obvious.

Nevertheless, it is obvious the winner will not be a country that ignores and rejects the reality of cold fusion.”
Edmund Storms Why is cold fusion rejected?

Perusing the DoE budget request is like forensics on a phantom limb, gone but not forgotten: there will be no federal funding for this field of new energy anytime soon.

But thank you Mr. Sidney Kimmel!

News like “Billionaire helps fund MU energy research” from the Columbia Daily Tribune is welcome, and desperately needed.

Cold Fusion Now!

Related Links

Billionaire helps fund MU energy research by Janese Silvey Columbia Daily Tribune

Department of Energy Budget and Performance

ARPA-E answers questions about fulfilling mission by Ruby Carat February 9, 2012

Letters to Congressional Energy Sub-committees repeat hearings request by Ruby Carat November 13, 2011

David J. Nagel on Ca$h Flow: A Reasoned Approach to Funding with James Martinez by Ruby Carat August 24, 2010

Why is cold fusion rejected? by Edmund Storms July 20, 2010

Robert Duncan interview on Cash-Flow: “Public investment means public ownership.” with James Martinez by Ruby Carat February 6, 2011

ARPA-E answers questions about fullfilling mission

The House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight held a hearing on January 24, 2012 to review the efforts of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), a Department of Energy (DOE) agency tasked with ‘funding cutting-edge energy research “in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty.”’

According to the Subcommittee press release, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Department of Energy Inspector General’s (IG) office both issued reports that found ARPA-E funding practices and procedures appearing to veer from this mission.

In particular, the GAO’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Could Benefit from Information on Applicants’ Prior Funding reported that

12 of the 18 companies it identified as having received private sector funding prior to their ARPA-E award planned to use ARPA-E funding to either advance or accelerate prior-funded work. Further, Chairman Broun noted, “Similarly, a review of GAO work papers and publicly available information indicates numerous instances of overlap and duplication between ARPA-E and both public and private sector funding.”

In addition, DOE’s Office of the Inspector General (IG) released its own audit in August 2011 that focused on “whether ARPA-E implemented safeguards necessary to achieve its goals and objectives and to effectively deploy associated Recovery Act resources.”

Two of the three awards examined in detail by the IG had questionable costs of $280,387. Included among these costs were “meetings with bankers to raise capital” and a “fee to appear on a local television show.” Despite concerns regarding these uses of taxpayer dollars, the DOE IG noted in its report that such activities were cited as an allowable cost by ARPA-E under its Technology Transfer and Outreach policy.

ARPA-E, DOE IG, and GAO
ARPA-E, DOE IG, and GAO each testified.

Testifying were Dr. Arun Majumdar, Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, U.S., Gregory Friedman, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Energy and Mr. Frank Rusco, Director, Energy and Science Issues, U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Roscoe Bartlett
Roscoe Bartlett
Dana Rohrabacher
Dana Rohrabacher

This particular Sub-committee has members such as Representatives Roscoe Bartlett, who has championed the Peak Oil issue in the House for years, though to deaf ears, and Dana Rohrabacher, who spoke out in support of Drs. Fleischmann and Ponstwenty-three years ago.

The Chairman of the Subcommittee, Paul Broun said in his statement that

“while it is clear many ARPA-E projects are pursuing high-quality, potentially transformative research that is too risky for private investment, reviews of GAO work papers and publicly available information reveal many exceptions to this practice, and raise questions regarding ARPA-E’s commitment to ‘carefully structure its projects to avoid any overlap with public and private sources of funding.’”

Specifically, the reports detail information showing that:

Numerous awardees indicated to GAO they would use ARPA-E funding to accelerate work they were already pursuing.

Numerous awardees’ proposals overlap and even duplicate efforts supported elsewhere in DOE and other Federal agencies.

The Administration touted ARPA-E awardees that received private sector funding after their ARPA-E award as proof that ARPA-E is working and successful; however, ten of these eleven recipients had also received significant private sector funding prior to receiving their award, raising questions regarding the degree to which the ARPA-E award itself was the driver of the follow-on funding.

Of the 44 identified small- and medium-size companies that received ARPA-E awards, a review of USASpending.gov shows that 26, or 59 percent, of these companies received other funding from the Federal government.

Over 60 percent of proposals funded by ARPA-E sought to advance technology to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 and beyond—the late stage technology demonstration and system commissioning and operation that is regularly supported by the private sector.

ARPA-E’s response, included in the GAO report, rationalized the actions.

ARPA-E response

The full Staff Report to Chairman Broun’s statement HERE
The GAO’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Could Benefit from Information on Applicants’ Prior Funding report is available HERE
The DOE IG’s Audit report is available HERE

The IG report states “The goals of ARPA-E are to enhance domestic economic security through the development of energy technologies and to ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.”

The small amount of federal funding for cold fusion research has come largely from Department of Defense agencies. Civilian funding would come from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E office, but so far they have refused to even acknowledge the two-decades long body of science, violating their stated mission.

At this point, it appears private sector funding will carry the development of this revolutionary new energy technology into the future – only after the first steps in commercial products begin appear on the market. Till then, the small, self-funded companies will continue to struggle in their effort to bring forth the answer to many of our energy problems in the form of real, usable generators.

And at that point, the DOE will realize they’ve been playing in Bonanzaland instead of the Space Age.

Cold Fusion Now!

Related Links

Members Question Oversight and Administration of ARPA-E House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight Press Release January 24, 2012

Letters to Congressional Sub-committees repeat hearings request by Ruby Carat November 13, 2011

Letter to the Secretary of Energy and others by Ruby Carat October 14, 2010

Letter to ARPA-E by Ruby Carat August 17, 2010 – one of our earliest efforts at contacting DOE!

“Suburbia lives imaginatively in Bonanza-land.” — Marshall McLuhan The Man, His Message CBC Archives


Contact the Committee on Science, Space and Technology Sub-Committee on Investigations and Oversight
Thank them for supporting new energy research
— and to put LENR funding at a priority.

Contact Representative Bartlett
Contact Representative Rohrabacher

 

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