Commercial interest in ARPA-E projects growing

In addition to the government’s own $70 million in funding, the private sector has invested a total of $450 million in 17 high-risk clean-energy technologies funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, reported a top ARPA–E official recently. That’s up from the $100 million of private investment in a half-dozen projects that the Department of Energy had reported just two years ago.

Cheryl Martin, deputy ARPA–E director, also announced that 12 new companies have been formed from ARPA–E projects. Speaking at ARPA–E’s fourth annual showcase on 26 February, Martin said that at least 10 other projects have received next-stage funding from other federal agencies, including the US Navy. The navy is backing a cooling–heating system powered by a Stirling engine, which was developed by Infinia Corp. Such a system could dramatically reduce fuel needs at remote military installations.

Of the 17 projects with private investment, seven involve advanced battery technologies, and several others involve biofuels. Batteries and energy-storage technologies dominate the list of spin-off companies as well.

Although ARPA–E focuses exclusively on early-stage R&D, Martin said the agency insists that its awardees plan up front how they will continue development of their technologies once the three-year grants conclude. “When we launch projects, we expect a credible path to additional funding and commercialization,” she said.

Martin told reporters that ARPA–E has terminated only about a dozen of the 285 research projects that have been started since it began operations in 2009. Although the low failure rate may surprise some, Martin said it’s expected that many other technologies won’t survive. “We are far from these things being in the market. ARPA–E is way back in the pipeline,” Martin said. “There are plenty of places for these technologies to fail.”

The agency, which has a budget of $275 million, has “a very broad mandate” that includes energy efficiency, greenhouse gases, and energy economics, she said. “And we have everything from new ways of thinking about fuels, to reengineering of plants, natural gas for vehicles and electric vehicles.” In the area of stationary energy generation, projects include carbon capture, electricity storage, hardware and software for controlling the grid, power electronics, and permanent magnets requiring little to no rare-earth elements. In addition to new battery technologies, ARPA–E has begun in the past year to invest in battery management systems. The agency wants to see if energy density can be increased at the system level. “Because what I really care about is the car going 300 miles, not the battery itself,” Martin said.