Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) issued a call to energy businesses of all
sizes for proposals to collaborate with LLNL teams of experts in advancing
energy technology through the use of high performance computing (HPC).

This one-year
pilot program, called the hpc4energy
incubator, aims to accelerate the development of energy technology and
boost U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace by teaming industry with
the scientific and computing resources at national laboratories. Companies with
the winning proposals will collaborate with LLNL scientists and use LLNL’s HPC
systems to find solutions to urgent problems and learn how to employ HPC as a
powerful tool for innovation.

“HPC lets
companies collapse the time and expense of designing and prototyping new
products and processes. That’s important for advanced industrial countries like
the U.S.
that can’t compete on wages and need to be at the frontier of discovery,” says
Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness.

“In an era of
fierce global competition in the clean energy sector, high performance
computing can stimulate the rapid advancement of U.S. clean energy
technologies,” says Tomas Diaz de la Rubia, LLNL Deputy Director for Science
& Technology, who announced the pilot program at a Technology Leadership
and Strategy Initiative (TLSI) workshop, sponsored by the Council on
Competitiveness and hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy in Washington D.C.

The hpc4energy incubator emerged from the
National Summit on Advancing Clean Energy Technologies held in Washington
D.C. in May, sponsored by the Howard Baker
Forum, the Bipartisan Policy Center,
LLNL, and other partners who focused on exploring how HPC can catalyze rapid
advancement of U.S.
clean energy technologies. This program also addresses the needs and benefits
identified earlier in studies by the Council on Competitiveness in
strengthening the U.S.
manufacturing sector and competitiveness as a whole.

Specifically,
LLNL is seeking proposals that address one of the five
critical clean energy areas outlined in the National Summit report: Building
Energy Efficiency; Carbon Capture; Utilization and Sequestration; Liquid Fuels
Combustion; Nuclear Energy; and Smart Grid, Power Storage, and Renewable Energy
Integration. To be considered, proposals must address a compelling, critical
problem to which the solution would advance energy through a combination of HPC
resources and collaborative teams of industry, energy, and computer scientists.

Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory, www.llnl.gov