Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) today 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 such as the United States 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.

The first step for potential collaborators is to submit a one-page letter of intent providing a high level overview of the proposal.  Letters of intent should be sent to proposals@hpc4energy.org before 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST) on Dec. 16, 2011.

For more information, see www.hpc4energy.org.