Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm on Thursday wrapped up a two-day swing through Silicon Valley with a stop at one of the region's most iconic innovation hubs — the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
Granholm, a former Michigan governor who has led the Department of Energy since the start of the Biden administration in 2021, took a tour of the facility in Menlo Park. Started in 1962 as a Stanford University project and completed in 1966, SLAC is a linear accelerator structure that's 3,0732.72 meters long and is used to to research particle physics.
Jennifer M. Granholm
Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm applauds the work performed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park during a visit Oct. 26, 2023.
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John Sarrao, SLAC Director, after an Oct. 26 tour of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory for Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm.
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Greg Hays, project director of LCLS-II at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, speaks with Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm during an Oct. 26 tour of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Former SLAC Lab Director Chi-Chang Kao was recognized during speeches at an Oct. 26 event where Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm toured the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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John Schmerge, associate lab director at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, walks with Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm and Greg Hays, a SLAC project director during an Oct. 26 tour of the Menlo Park-based facility.
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Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm tours the control room of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory on Oct. 26, 2023.
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Looking down the SLAC-II Accelerator at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Jennifer M. Granholm, US Department of Energy, greets an employee during a tour of the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Jennifer M. Granholm, US Department of Energy, toured the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm leaves her signature on a cold box, a key component of the LCLS-II cryogenic plant, at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm learns about about SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory from Eric Fauve, with SLAC's cryogenic division and SLAC Director John Sarrao on Oct. 26.
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Elisa Biasin, a research associate at the Stanford Pulse Institute at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, speaks with Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm during an Oct. 26 tour of the accelerator facility.
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Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm addresses the SLAC staff after a tour of the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm has her picture taken with the SLAC staff after a tour of the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Attendees of a welcoming event for Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Claudio Pellefrini listens to Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm on Oct. 26 during the Biden administration official's visit to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park.
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Last month, the lab — which is funded by the federal government and managed by Stanford — fired up an upgraded X-ray laser it said was the most powerful in the world. The laser, dubbed the LCLS-II, is expected to help the research center explore "atomic-scale, ultrafast phenomena." The results of experiments using the new machine are expected to be applicable to energy technologies and medicine.
"This is a second generation machine," said Mike Dunne, the associate lab director of the LCLS. "We can learn lessons nature has developed over millions of years and study how it makes it so efficient. And then apply that to technologies."
Granholm said the Department of Energy plans on building stronger relations with SLAC and Stanford.
"The amount of money and the time it's taking to do this as a user facility, it puts the United States in the number one spot in all the world," Granholm said. She added that technologies being tested at SLAC will help the Biden administration with its goal of getting to 100% clean electricity by 2035.
"All of the processes that develop those technologies can come through here and make them better," she said.
On Wednesday, Granholm announced that nine organizations will received $45 million in Energy Department grant money that's intended to help nonprofits make energy efficiency upgrades to their facilities. Among the nine was Santa Cruz-based Ecology Action, an organization that began in 1970 initially to establish a local recycling center.
