New Science for a Secure and Sustainable Energy Future

Over the past five years, the Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences has engaged thousands of scientists around the world to study the current status, limiting factors and specific fundamental scientific bottlenecks blocking the widespread implementation of alternate energy technologies. The reports from the foundational BESAC workshop, the ten 'Basic Research Needs' workshops and the panel on Grand Challenge science detail the necessary research steps (http://www.sc.doe.gov/bes/reports/list.html). This report responds to a charge from the Director of the Office of Science to the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee to conduct a study with two primary goals: (1) to assimilate the scientific research directions that emerged from these workshop reports into a comprehensive set of science themes, and (2) to identify the new implementation strategies and tools required to accomplish the science. From these efforts it becomes clear that the magnitude of the challenge is so immense that existing approaches - even with improvements from advanced engineering and improved technology based on known concepts - will not be enough to secure our energy future. Instead, meeting the challenge will require fundamental understanding and scientific breakthroughs in new materials and chemical processes to make possible new energy technologies and performance levels far beyond what is now possible