Targets of ARPA–E investment also receive private funds

Nature : The Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA–E) was established seven years ago to help promote investment in clean-energy technology. On 9 February, at the program’s annual summit, the project managers announced that technologies supported by ARPA–E have also received $850 million in private investment. The ARPA–E program itself has invested $1.1 billion in more than 400 projects, but determining the actual impact of the investment is difficult because of the slow-moving nature of the energy industry. However, over the past two years, venture-capital investment in the US has dropped sharply, with almost none going to early-stage clean-energy research. To help reverse that trend, the US government announced on 10 February a new initiative to increase private investment, which has already garnered a pledge of $1 billion from the University of California Board of Regents for investment in climate-friendly technologies.