ARPA-E Summit

It takes a village (of scientists) to reinvent energy

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

Vinod Khosla: In energy, ignore the experts

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--Monkeys throwing darts have the same predictive powers as experts forecasting the price of oil or when grandmas will surf the Web with mobile phones, says Vinod Khosla.

The high-profile investor, who raised over $1 billion for a green-technology fund last year, argued here Wednesday that technology change in energy will happen faster than most expect because energy has now become a focus on technical innovation.

Khosla spoke at the ARPA-E Summit, a conference dedicated to showcasing breakthrough clean-energy technologies, where he challenged attendees to think big.

As an example of missed forecasts, he cited McKinsey's … Read more

Green tech seeks its 'Netscape moment'

Updated at 11:00 am PT with correction to Podesta's comment.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--If you're wondering what the next big thing in green tech will be, this is a good place to look.

The ARPA-E Summit, a conference designed to showcase potential breakthrough clean-energy technologies, started on Monday, attracting some 1,700 investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers all vying to reinvent the energy infrastructure to be cleaner and more efficient.

Given the makeup of the group, the mood is optimistic that new technologies can shake up even the slow-moving energy business. At the conference, scientists and entrepreneurs showed … Read more

GE's Immelt: U.S. lagging in clean energy

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--The demand for energy products is gravitating toward the developing world and the bulk of new clean-energy business risks going along with it, said General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt.

Immelt gave a talk at the ARPA-E Summit here on Tuesday where he focused on the importance of energy in the context of global economic competitiveness. The conference, meant to showcase disruptive energy technologies, has attracted energy technology entrepreneurs, investors, and policymakers.

The U.S. is historically been strong in developing new technologies, but uncertain policies and relatively low levels of spending on research and development make the … Read more

DOE's Chu looks to past for energy breakthroughs

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland--Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees the solutions to today's energy challenges in the work of scientists in decades past.

Chu delivered the opening keynote here Tuesday at the first ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, where he used examples of historic technology breakthroughs as the model for making new discoveries in clean energy. The Department of Energy is seeking to re-create the structure of research that yielded great technology jumps, such as the precursor of the Internet or the laser.

ARPA-E, which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, was funded for the first time last year. Its goal is … Read more