ARPA-E Blog
ARPA-E Tech-to-Market Advisors are commercialization experts that have a critical blend of technical, business, and entrepreneurial experience that they draw upon to prepare project teams and technologies that are too early for private sector development for commercial success. Hear from Tech-to-Market Advisor Carlton Reeves about his experiences on the ARPA-E Tech-to-Market team.
During the last week of February 2017, more than 2,000 energy innovators, investors, and policymakers will gather just outside Washington, D.C. to discuss cutting-edge energy technologies and commercialization strategies at the eighth annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. During the three-day program, attendees from across the United States and the world will hear from industry and government leaders, network at focused seminars and panel discussions, and have a first-hand look at the hundreds of technologies featured in ARPA-E’s Technology Showcase.
Preparing early stage technologies to make the leap from lab to market is a key element of ARPA-E's mission. Every project team must compliment their technical work with rigorous go-to-market activities to assess and advance the commercial viability of their technology. ARPA-E’s Tech-to-Market (T2M) team assists in developing the knowledge, strategy, skills and team that performers need to expedite private-sector deployment of their technologies. Hear from Tech-to-Market Advisor Nate Gorence about what being on the ARPA-E T2M team is like.
October is National Energy Action Month, a time for us to focus on energy’s critical importance to our national security, economic prosperity, and environmental well-being. And while this month is special, at ARPA-E, we’re working year-round to accelerate innovations that will create a secure, affordable and sustainable American energy future.
Here at ARPA-E, we focus on transformational energy projects that can be meaningfully advanced with a small investment over a set amount of time. Our streamlined awards process enables us to act quickly and catalyze cutting-edge areas of energy research. Part of making sure we have a constant infusion of fresh thinking and new perspectives comes from our Program Directors, who serve on limited terms. ARPA-E hires Program Directors with visionary ideas for new energy technologies. During their three-year terms, Program Directors are responsible for program creation, design, implementation, and management. Hear from three Program Directors—two current and one alumnus—about what being an ARPA-E Program Director is like.
Many of ARPA-E’s technology programs seek to break down silos and build new technological communities around a specific energy challenge. The Full-Spectrum Optimized Conversion and Utilization of Sunlight (FOCUS) program is bringing together the photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) communities to develop hybrid and cost-competitive solar energy systems. ARPA-E’s FOCUS program has enabled experts from both disciplines to develop a hybrid option that could capture maximum energy out of the full solar spectrum, generating both electricity and usable heat within the same system.
The ARPA-E Fellows Program seeks to seed innovation and creativity within the Agency by generating new ideas and connecting with leading experts to empower cross-disciplinary solutions that improve energy efficiency, reduce energy imports, and curb emissions. During their two-year tenure, ARPA-E Fellows influence the direction of American energy innovation, engaging with world-class researchers in academia and industry, entrepreneurs, and government officials.
The Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) brings together experts on plant genetics, information technology and robotics in the search for bioenergy crops that are sustainable, affordable and yield abundant feedstocks for biofuel. Through ARPA-E’s TERRA program -- short for “Transportation Energy Resources from Renewable Agriculture” -- some of these researchers are building robots armed with cutting-edge sensors to collect data on plant characteristics. Meanwhile, other teams develop tools that use this data to predict which plants will grow more quickly, thrive in stressful environments, and generally show greater potential to fuel and feed our planet.
ARPA-E's Methane Observation Networks with Innovative Technology to Obtain Reductions (MONITOR) program, now in its second year, is making tremendous technical progress in developing low-cost, highly sensitive technologies for improved methane detection and measurement in the natural gas supply chain. MONITOR technologies are addressing shortcomings of existing technologies through several innovative approaches – such as remote sensing, advanced dispersion models, UAVs, and low cost print manufacturing, to name a few – that can cost-effectively estimate methane emission flow rates, localize the leak source, and provide continuous and remote monitoring. As a teaser for the entire portfolio, learn about three MONITOR project teams developing innovative technologies to detect methane.
This week ARPA-E is celebrating its seventh anniversary! Back in 2009, ARPA-E was a handful of innovative technology leaders and staffers with ambitious ideas about creating an agile government agency that could transform the U.S. energy landscape. Today, ARPA-E is changing the game in energy innovation with a diverse portfolio of more than 475 early-stage energy technology projects -- many of which are showing signs of technical and commercial success.