[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 179 (Friday, September 14, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46712-46713]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-20032]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Notice of Public Meeting

AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of 
Energy.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is hosting a workshop to 
develop new prizes, competitions, and related initiatives that advance 
water security in the United States and globally. The workshop will 
inform a DOE-led Grand Challenge that seeks breakthroughs on a set of 
critical water issues through a coordinated suite of prizes, 
competitions, early-stage research and development, and related 
programs.

DATES: The public meeting will be held on October 25, 2018 from 8 a.m. 
to 4 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be held at DOE's National Renewable 
Energy Laboratory, 15301 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Questions may be directed to Andre de 
Fontaine, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and 
Renewable Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585. 
Telephone (202) 586-6585. Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Water is a critical resource for human 
health, economic growth, and agricultural productivity. The United 
States has benefitted from access to low-cost water supplies--however, 
new challenges are emerging that, if left unaddressed, could shift this 
paradigm.
    In the U.S., a growing number of regions are competing for fresh 
water sources and water quality problems are impacting human health and 
the environment. Municipal water and wastewater treatment systems face 
billions of dollars in unmet infrastructure investment needs, which 
will likely increase as population grows, and water and wastewater 
treatment requirements become more stringent.
    Lack of safe and secure water supplies is also a global problem. 
According to the World Health Organization, more than 2 billion people 
globally lack access to safe, readily available water at home.\1\ Aside 
from the humanitarian implications, water security is also an issue of 
national security.
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    \1\ World Health Organization, ``2.1 billion people lack safe 
drinking water at home, more than twice as many lack safe 
sanitation,'' July 2017. http://www.who.int/news-room/detail/12-07-2017-2-1-billion-people-lack-safe-drinking-water-at-home-more-than-twice-as-many-lack-safe-sanitation.
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    On March 13, 2018, U.S. Department of Energy (``DOE'') Secretary 
Perry led a roundtable discussion on the use of challenges and prize 
competitions to drive innovation on critical water issues. In 
conjunction with this, DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable 
Energy (``EERE'') published in the Federal Register a request for 
information (RFI) seeking input on the possible use of challenges and 
prize competitions to address technical and other barriers that may 
prevent long-term access to low-cost water supplies. Through the RFI 
responses, a series of internal DOE meetings, and conversations with 
external experts, DOE identified the following set of key issues to 
address through this effort:

1. Cost-competitive desalination technologies
2. Transforming produced water from a waste to a resource
3. Reducing water impacts in the power sector
4. Lowering energy costs in wastewater treatment
5. Developing off-grid, modular energy-water systems
6. Cross-cutting, or open issues

    The RFI can be found at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/03/19/2018-05472/notice-of-request-for-information-rfi-on-critical-water-issues-prize-competition. DOE is now announcing a public 
meeting to gather additional, focused input on the use of prize 
competitions to make progress on these water issues.
    The purpose of this public meeting is to solicit feedback from 
industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies and 
other stakeholders on potential prize competitions that could be 
developed to address these key water issues. Participants will spend 
much of the day in breakout sessions aligned with the six topic areas 
identified above. Participants will be asked to brainstorm specific 
prize ideas aligned with the breakout topics and report the results of 
their discussion out to the group. DOE's goal is to produce a number of 
different

[[Page 46713]]

prize ideas through the workshop that it and its partners may pursue in 
the future.

Public Participation

Attendance at Public Meeting

    The time, date and location of the public meeting are listed in the 
DATES and ADDRESSES sections at the beginning of this document. Please 
register at www.nrel.gov/waterchallenge to attend the meeting. DOE 
plans to cap attendance to about 60 participants and will handle 
registration on a first-come, first-served basis.
    Please note, foreign nationals (including Canadian citizens, 
permanent resident aliens and resident aliens) visiting NREL are 
subject to advance security screening procedures which require advance 
notice prior to attendance at the public meeting. If you are a foreign 
national, contact Sarah Barba at [email protected] or (303) 275-3023 
for the necessary foreign national paperwork. All foreign national data 
cards must be received by close of business Friday, September 21, 2018. 
Foreign national data cards received after this date will be reviewed 
on a case by case basis.
    U.S. citizens must show government issued photo I.D. (such as a 
driver's license, passport, or military ID) to NREL Security upon 
arrival.

Conduct of Public Meeting

    DOE will designate a DOE official to preside over the public 
meeting. DOE reserves the right to schedule the order of presentations, 
determine the composition of the breakout sessions and to establish the 
procedures governing the conduct of the public meeting.
    The public meeting will be conducted in an informal style, with a 
mix of plenary presentations and breakout sessions. Following one or 
two opening plenary addresses in the morning, DOE will split the 
audience into breakout groups aligned with the six critical water issue 
topic areas described above, with one or two breakout groups per topic 
area. Participants in each breakout group will discuss potential prize 
ideas aligned with the topic area, and report the results of their 
discussions out to the full group of attendees. DOE will use the 
results of these discussions to inform the development of potential 
prize competitions and challenges.

    Signed in Washington, DC, on September 10, 2018.
Alex Fitzsimmons,
Chief of Staff, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy.
[FR Doc. 2018-20032 Filed 9-13-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6450-01-P