May 3, 2013, 8:01 a.m. EDT
Awesome energy innovations, courtesy of Uncle Sam
Commentary: ARPA-E helps pave the way to a post-carbon future
new
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Someplace in America, some very smart scientists are busy revolutionizing our economy.
At least, that’s what a small federal agency — ARPA-E (the
Advanced Energy Projects Agency-Energy) — hopes to accomplish by
giving a few million dollars to each of hundreds of promising
technologies that could change the way the world produces and consumes
energy.
Some of these researchers are rushing to invent, perfect and
commercialize the technologies that could one day replace petroleum and
other fossil-fuels as the world’s dominant energy source.
The hope is that these new technologies could allow us to dramatically
cut the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases without
hurting economic growth. Indeed, energy costs could be much lower and
less volatile. The right mix of technologies could make any country or
region entirely energy self-sufficient.
ARPA-E
While these researchers are reinventing energy technology, ARPA-E is
reinventing the way the government funds research and development.
Rather than give billions of dollars to one laboratory or one company to
develop one technology, as most government programs do, ARPA-E is
giving small amounts to hundreds of labs to investigate promising
transformative energy technologies.
ARPA-E doesn’t fund basic research that may or may not have any
practical applications; it requires its grantees to think like
entrepreneurs, to think about how to commercialize their idea.
ARPA-E is almost like a venture capital firm, nurturing many ideas in
the hope that one of them will be The Next Big Thing. But ARPA-E isn’t a
VC firm; it doesn’t provide all the financing needed to bring a product
to market, only the seed money to prove the technology enough to
attract private venture capital.
The ARPA-E incubator is already showing some successes: So far, 17 of its projects have attracted follow-up funding
from the private sector totaling $450 million. Twelve other projects
have started new companies, and 10 more are receiving additional funds
from other government agencies.
Electric avenues
So far, the biggest success stories have come from projects working on
building better batteries and on bioengineering projects to invent
plants and microorganisms that can directly produce usable liquid fuels.
Both of these areas are designed to wean the transportation sector off
petroleum. More than a fourth of the energy — and 90% of the petroleum —
consumed in the United States is used for transportation. Cutting the
petroleum bill in half — or all the way — would improve national
security and reduce our massive current account deficit.
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Envia Systems, for example, got a $4 million grant from ARPA-E to
develop a long-range lithium-ion battery for electric cars. Envia says
it has been able to triple the amount of energy stored in a battery, at
half the cost of currently available batteries.
In the same vein, Sion Power used its $5 million ARPA-E grant to develop
a long-range lithium-sulphur battery, which could provide even greater
range and cost savings.
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If Envia, Sion and other researchers are successful in making batteries
stronger, cheaper and lighter, electric vehicles will soon be
competitive with gasoline-powered cars in terms of performance and
price. General Motors
GM
+2.25%
, which has invested in Envia, announced last week that its
next-generation Chevy Volt will be profitable because of the
advancements in battery technologies.
ARPA-E has also funded several research projects that could lead to
widespread adoption of natural-gas-fueled cars. There is also research
into a dozen different areas, ranging from smart grid technologies to
solar and wind technologies.
Electrofuel power
But the really exciting research is happening in biology, where 13
different research teams are trying to invent new life forms that would
produce what are known as electrofuels, in which genetically engineered microorganisms convert electrical energy into usable fuels. Ten other projects are working on developing plants (including pine trees, tobacco and sorghum) that would directly produce fuel.
Current biofuels programs use inefficient photosynthesis to convert
energy into plant matter (such as corn or cane sugar), which must then
be processed further to make something useful, such as ethanol. Biofuels
aren’t particularly green, and they can compete directly with crops
grown for food.
By contrast, electrofuels are produced directly by the organisms, using
simple inputs such as sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. This means
that electrofuels can be carbon-neutral. These organisms could even help
scrub carbon dioxide out of the air.
Several projects (including OPX Biotechnologies and Ginkgo Bioworks)
have proven the concept in the lab; what’s left to do is to prove that
these processes can be scaled up to industrial strength at a competitive
price.
The challenge to the researchers is not just to invent something cool,
but to be at least as good if not better than the old alternative
technologies.
The whole point of the ARPA-E process is to create new products that
don’t require continuous subsidies from the government. After a brief
assist from ARPA-E, they have to make it on their own.
The agency has broad support from the research community, industry and
policy wonks on both sides of the aisle in Washington. Republican Sens.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee are big
supporters.
President Barack Obama has requested $379 million for APRA-E for fiscal
2014. It got $277 million in 2013. That’s a tiny portion of the $3.8
trillion federal budget. It could be the biggest bang for the buck in
Washington.
Rex Nutting is a columnist and MarketWatch's
international commentary editor, based in Washington. Follow him on
Twitter @RexNutting.
end quote from:
Awesome energy innovations, courtesy of Uncle Sam
Someplace
in America, some very smart scientists are busy revolutionizing our
economy and the way it uses energy, writes Rex Nutting. And Uncle Sam is
actually helping.
at MarketWatch
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