The Department of Defense (DoD) is one of the largest consumers of energy in the world—accounting for 1% of U.S. energy consumption. Given this impressive demand, the department actively pursues energy technologies to make the way it trains, moves and sustains U.S. forces more energy efficient and resilient. Because ARPA-E funds innovative new energy technologies, DoD can be a natural hand-off partner for ARPA-E teams seeking to further their technology. Featuring remarks from ARPA-E’s Dr. Ryan Umstattd, this video highlights two ARPA-E projects that have formed strategic partnerships with the military to improve mission readiness and enhance operational capability. Texas A&M University is partnering with the Navy to develop a membrane technology to dehumidify cargo spaces in ships where moisture can cause damage. Nexceris is collaborating with the Navy to develop an off-gas sensor for lithium-ion batteries that can detect and warn of an impending battery failure, keeping equipment and personnel onboard Naval vessels safe.
ARPA-E’s Modern Electro/Thermochemical Advances in Light Metals Systems (METALS) program seeks cost-effective and energy-efficient technologies to process and recycle metals for lightweight vehicles and aircraft. ARPA-E Program Director Dr. David Tew discusses the METALS program and explains how reducing the amount of energy and money it takes to recycle or process light metals like titanium or aluminum may enable competition with heavier incumbents like steel. This video highlights two METALS projects: UHV Technologies, which has developed a first-of-its-kind automatic scrap metal sorter to reduce the cost of metal recycling, and the University of Utah, which has discovered a new chemical process to extract titanium powder directly from ore—reducing cost and energy consumption.
Presentation from the High Efficiency Hybrid Vehicles Workshop recorded October 25, 2017. Presented by ARPA-E Program Directors Chris Atkinson and Grigorii Soloveichik.
In this webinar, ARPA-E Program Director Rachel Slaybaugh provides an overview of the Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear Energy Reinvigoration (MEITNER) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).
The ARPA-E model is unique in that the agency does not just provide teams funding. Throughout the lifetime of an ARPA-E award, ARPA-E Program Directors and Tech-to-Market Advisors also provide teams with expert advice through quarterly reviews and onsite visits. This hands-on approach helps ensure teams can meet ambitious milestones, target and tackle problems early on, and advance their technologies towards commercialization. Program Director Dr. Isik Kizilyalli explains the importance of this active project management approach in helping teams identify and overcome barriers. In this video, Energy Storage Systems (ESS) from the GRIDS program and Monolith Semiconductors from the SWITCHES program discuss how ARPA-E’s active project management approach helped them find solutions to technical challenges.
ARPA-E brings together experts from diverse disciplines and industries to frame new ways of looking at the energy challenge. By viewing the problem through a different lens, ARPA-E brings together new capabilities to develop new technology solutions. The DELTA and MONITOR programs illustrate this novel approach well. In this video, Associate Director of Technology Dr. Patrick McGrath discusses how ARPA-E has reframed the challenge of building efficiency with the DELTA program and methane leaks with the MONITOR program differently in order to yield “out of left field” technologies that can lead to transformational gains. The video features two projects – University of California San Diego’s DELTA project and Rebellion Photonics’ MONITOR project.
ARPA-E’s Technology-to-Market Advisors work closely with each ARPA-E project team to develop and execute a commercialization strategy. ARPA-E requires our teams to focus on their commercial path forward, because we understand that to have an impact on our energy mission, technologies must have a viable path into the marketplace. ARPA-E Senior Commercialization Advisor Dr. John Tuttle discusses what this Tech-to-Market guidance in practice looks like with reference to two project teams. OPEN 2012 awardees from Harvard University and Sunfolding share their stories of how ARPA-E worked with their teams to analyze market conditions and identify commercial opportunities that ultimately convinced them to pivot their technologies towards market applications with greater potential.
Innovation and entrepreneurism are integral parts of America’s national fiber and driving forces behind many of the technologies that define our modern lives. It’s this entrepreneurial spirit – in conjunction with world-class institutions and talent – that enable the United States to develop advanced energy technologies that can solve the many challenges we face.
Featuring remarks from multiple ARPA-E staff, this video explores how ARPA-E leverages our nation’s resources to help nurture and grow America’s energy innovation community. The video also incorporates footage shot onsite with several ARPA-E awardees who are innovating solutions to transform tomorrow’s energy future.
ARPA-E helps to translate cutting-edge inventions into technological innovations that could change how we use, generate and store energy. In just seven years, ARPA-E technologies are demonstrating technical and commercial progress, surpassing $1.25 billion in private sector follow on funding. In this video, ARPA-E Director Dr. Ellen D. Williams highlights an exciting project from Stanford University that is developing a radiative cooling technology that could enable buildings, power plants, solar cells and even clothing to cool without using electric power or loss of water. This project is just one example among ARPA-E’s 400+ innovative technologies that are reimagining energy and helping to create a more secure, affordable and sustainable American energy future.
Many of ARPA-E’s technology programs seek to break down silos and build new technological communities around a specific energy challenge. In this video, ARPA-E’s Deputy Director for Technology Eric Rohlfing, discusses how 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 solar energy systems. This video features interviews with innovators from the FOCUS project team made up by Arizona State University and the University of Arizona, and showcases how the FOCUS program is combining the best elements of two types of solar to get the most out of the full solar spectrum.