Morgantown Energy Technology Center

 Home
 BEMR Contents
 U.S. Map

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center is located in northern West Virginia in the City of Morgantown, which is approximately 144 kilometers (90 miles) south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the intersection of Interstates 68 and 79. The major geographical feature of the area is the Monongahela River, which runs through the Appalachian Mountains of the region. The population of Morgantown is approximately 30,000, excluding the student population of 20,000 enrolled at West Virginia University, which is also located within the city.

FACILITY MISSION

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center is a major program implementation office that reports to the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy. Using the full research and development resource base of the country (industry, universities, national laboratories, and other research entities), the Center carries out programs of national scope analogous to those of the combined operations offices and national laboratories. The mission of the Center focuses on commercializing technologies that the private sector will carry out. This role is like that of a catalyst, as it promotes and accelerates technology development by performing or sponsoring backstop research, addressing barrier issues which may arise, and increasing continuously with industry to ensure technology transfer and relevance to both Department and private sector objectives.

This mission is accomplished largely through the use of funding mechanisms that build public and private sector partnerships, such as Program Research and Development Announcements, Research Opportunity Announcements, and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements. Activities procured through these contracting devices can be promptly moved to other programs that have identified the need for advanced research and development, or to the private sector for commercialization.

The Center is a government-owned and -operated entity. Federal personnel have full procurement authority to enter into contracts and assistance agreements on behalf of the Department. They are authorized to negotiate patent and data rights, which are important elements in many cost-sharing research and development agreements. Research and development complements the procurement and management of projects with industry, universities, and other research organizations. The presence of scientists and engineers strengthens the Center's ability to implement important environment- and energy-related programs. Although this role is unique in the Department of Energy, the model of a federal laboratory that contracts for research and development and carries out complementary activities is typical of several other executive agencies. The Center employs over 300 federal employees, with approximately 270 onsite contractor support personnel. These employees provide a wide range of services that include scientific, computer, project management, in-house mail, warehouse, security, and other onsite support.

The Center is organized around three business sectors: Power Systems, Fuels, and Technical Management Services. The Power Systems sector comprises five product lines offering the electric power industry choices of advanced systems that can meet varied, individual requirements. The Fuels sector carries out programs to improve technologies to produce the nation's abundant natural gas supplies and to develop economically and environmentally sound technologies to convert gaseous and solid fossil fuels into liquids. In the Technical Management Services sector, the focus is on minimizing the production of waste products from fossil energy systems and ensuring that the waste that must be disposed of is environmentally safe.

All environmental management work performed by this facility is related to environmental technology development, and all life-cycle costs for these activities are included in the Maryland/District of Columbia site summary under the Headquarters National Technology Development program costs. There currently are no waste management, environmental restoration, or other activities for which the Environmental Management program is responsible at the Morgantown facility. The Office of Fossil Energy is responsible for all ongoing regulatory compliance activities.

FUTURE USE

The Office of Fossil Energy will determine the mission and future use of the site. Technology development activities for the Environmental Management program will be conducted in coordination with the Fossil Energy programs. Environmental Management will provide all funding for Environmental Technology Development program activities over the life of the program, which is expected to last 15 to 20 years.