Texas governor Rick Perry announced an $8.4 million grant to Texas Tech and the National Institute for Renewable Energy from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF) at 2 p.m. Monday in a conference at the Merket Alumni Center on Tech’s campus.
At the conference, Tech System Chancellor Kent Hance, Tech President Guy Bailey and Governor Rick Perry discussed the importance of energy independence and the possibilities the funds from the TETF will bring to Texas Tech and the state of Texas.
“The importance of what we are doing today cannot be overstated from the standpoint of what the future of this country is going to look like,” Perry said. “Texas always powered the nation and, thanks to a new generation of hard workers and visionaries, Texas is leading the way on the renewable energy front.”
Perry also said this university plays a highly important role in moving Texas and the rest of the nation toward energy independence, which he argued is essential to the nation’s future.
“This partnership will help speed the integration with a power grid set standard that other states can follow in their pursuit of our success,” he said.
Texas Tech will be able to take research in renewable energy to the next level in the state of Texas, Perry said, and the hard work that will be put into that research could send a powerful message to the rest of the nation.
Tech has been a leader in wind science and engineering for 40 years, and currently, the only Ph.D. program in wind science and engineering available in the U.S. Texas is the number one wind-energy-producing state in the country and 90 percent of current wind energy production takes place in West Texas.
However, Bailey said that Texas Tech is not a leader in research and development and the award Tech received yesterday will help Tech be a leader in research.
The funds will also go to help Texas Tech, with its partners, establish the National Institute for Renewable Energy, which will bring together industry, government and academia.
They will all partner together to build and operate the first wind research farm in the U.S., developing prototypes and technology to try and solve two difficult challenges that are faced by today’s wind energy industry, Bailey said.
The two difficult challenges are the high cost of wind energy, especially relative to non-renewable sources, and the inability to transmit and store wind energy.
“We think as we do this we will not only be a leader in the production of wind energy,” Bailey said, “but also in research and development as well.”
As such research begins to take place and external funding like the TETF continue to come to Tech, Bailey said Tech will see a boost in its pursuit of status as a National Research University.
“It is a huge boost in our goal to become Tier One,” he said. “I think it is absolutely in our grasp to reach this goal, and we are certainly headed in the right direction.”