At the Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the launch of the “Industrial Heat Shot™”, the latest in its line of Energy Earthshot™ initiatives. Energy Earthshots seek to “accelerate breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions” to combat the climate crisis, amongst other things. First announced in June 2021, past initiatives include:

• The Hydrogen Shot™ (to spur demand for clean hydrogen),
• The Long Duration Storage Shot™ (to achieve affordable grid storage for clean power),
• The Carbon Negative Shot™ (to seek innovation in technologies and approaches that will remove CO2 from the atmosphere),
• The Enhanced Geothermal Shot™ (to reduce the cost of enhanced geothermal systems), and
• The Floating Offshore Wind Shot™ (to drive down costs in floating offshore wind technology)

With these goals in motion, the recently announced Industrial Heat Shot seeks to further pursue clean energy by developing cost-competitive solutions for industrial heat with at least an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. These initiatives are national in scope and reflect a drastic change in attitudes regarding the importance of clean energy solutions. It remains to be seen how these initiatives will impact energy industries within different regions of the nation.