ARPA-E

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus can measure the cost of transporting oil to combat missions in dollars and in lives.

Mabus gave the keynote talk today at the ARPA-E Summit here, where he announced an agreement between the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to create energy storage systems geared at providing reliable power and reducing fossil fuel use.

His talk followed speeches by Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and representative Steve Israel of New York, who both highlighted the importance to national security of fossil fuel alternatives.

The Navy has a program, launched in fall 2009 and called the "Great Green Fleet," to convert 50 percent of its energy to fossil fuel alternatives by 2020 and to have half of the Navy's thousands of bases become net energy zero consumers. It's a reference to the "Great White Fleet," the nickname used under President Theodore Roosevelt for a battle fleet which circled the globe almost 100 years ago.

"Every time we make changes to improve the efficiencies of our engines or systems or we use alternative sources of power, we get better and we make people safer," Mabus said.

In the agreement between the Departments of Defense and Energy, the Navy plans to take advantage of grid storage technologies developed in the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The cost of the project would be $25 million and start in fiscal year 2012.

The first project will seek to develop hybrid storage systems with higher energy density than what's available in batteries today. Mabus said the technology could lead to mobile storage units for charging military equipment at bases or be used to reduce fuel consumption in vehicles. … Read more

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--Green-technology proponents need a better way to make their case, according to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, in a speech today, arguably raised his profile as a leading advocate himself.

The former California governor and movie star gave a keynote talk at the ARPA-E Summit here, alternating between funny one-liners and serious discussion on the importance of clean-energy technologies for the country's future prosperity.

California offers a model for tech companies that can help vitalize the economy and reduce greenhouse gases, while helping the country reduce its imports of oil, he argued. Schwarzenegger signed a global-warming law that … Read more

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--Energy Secretary Steven Chu is drawing on U.S. history in research and development to advocate for policies to encourage clean energy technology innovation for the future.

Chu gave the keynote speech at the ARPA-E Summit here today, saying once again that the U.S. is in a race with China, the European Union, and other countries to create energy products expected to grow in demand.

He started out by showing a graph of the rise and fall of oil prices over time, saying that people cannot accurately say where oil prices be in a few years … Read more

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--The ARPA-E Summit opens this morning with seemingly dual purposes: toinspire scientists to invent and to convince Congress of the energy agency's own worth.

The conference is a showcase for cutting-edge energy research and development and a magnet for investors and politicians eager to tout the benefits of investing in developing clean-energy technologies. Keynoters include Energy Secretary Steven Chu, former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Navy Secretary Raymond Mabus. Also speaking will be some Republican and Democrat members of Congress, leaders of big businesses, and representatives of several fledging technology companies.

After last year's inaugural … Read more

The Department of Energy today released a financial report card on its ARPA-E research program, saying that grants for clean-energy technology development led to larger investments from the private sector.

Six early-stage energy technology companies received $23.6 million in grants, sized from $750,000 to $8 million each. One year later, those companies attracted a total of $100 million from outside investors.

"This amount of private capital support indicates that the business community is hungry to invest in truly innovative solutions to the country's energy challenges," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.

The six … Read more

Grants for renewable energy projects are part of a planned tax bill being brokered in Washington, but incentives for manufacturing are not included and clean-energy research spending will remain flat at best, according to reports.

Even though corn ethanol subsidies have increasingly come under fire, the Senate is expected to vote on a tax deal on Monday that includes an extension to a 45 cents per gallon tax credit for blenders, reports E2 Wire today. A 54 cent per gallon import tariff, designed to protect the U.S. corn ethanol industry, was also extended through 2011.

Over the past few … Read more

LEXINGTON, Mass.--Energy Secretary Steven Chu toured tiny solar company 1366 Technologies here today, holding it up as an example of success in the ARPA-E program and the importance of federal funding for energy research.

Chu toured the labs of 1366 Technologies, a company spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008 to bring the price of solar power down to the price of coal, after briefing incoming members of Congress at the Harvard Kennedy School of government in nearby Cambridge.

1366 Technologies received a $4 million grant from the ARPA-E program, which enabled it to attract private capital … Read more

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy on Thursday announced $106 million in funding for 37 research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs.

The projects, to be done by university and corporate researchers, are in "electrofuels," or making liquid fuels from electricity; improved auto batteries; and materials for capturing carbon dioxide. It's the second round of awards given out by ARPA-E, a U.S. Department of Energy agency created to pursue high-risk, high-reward clean-energy technologies.

The electrofuels projects were awarded primarily to university groups, with many focusing on engineering microorganisms to create liquid fuels, such as butanol or other biofuels. … Read more

National Harbor, Md.--Attending the ARPA-E Summit this week was sort of like roaming the halls of clean-tech high school, one investor quipped when I asked him what he thought of the conference. It's an analogy that holds up pretty well.

There were the popular "kids" that everybody wanted talk to--high-profile green-tech investors like John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures. Authority figures who set the rules were out in force as well, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu, multiple senators, and other high-level Department of Energy officials.

And then there … Read more