ARPA-E hosted “Emerging Ideas Workshops” from March 26-30, 2012 in Washington, DC and Arlington, VA. These workshops brought together thought leaders from distinct science, engineering, and commercial communities to collectively develop new ideas and identify key needs and potentially transformational technological approaches.

ARPA-E is exploring new technology areas that may merit the creation of a full program(s) at some point in the future. Ahead of such investment, ARPA-E hosted Emerging Ideas Workshops comprised of small groups of experts to focus on examining specific technologies. Any Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) resulting from the workshops may fund projects that are shorter in duration or smaller in scope than typical ARPA-E projects, designed to determine whether these areas warrant a continued and/or larger effort.

Specifically, ARPA-E is interested in exploring opportunities in the following potential program areas:

• High-efficiency, high-concentration photovoltaics through advanced optical system design (March 26, 2012);
• Topping cycles for higher efficiency power generation (March 27, 2012);
• Novel bioreactors for photosynthetic and Electrofuels-based systems (March 27, 2012);
• Rapid active charging environment for batteries in electric vehicles (March 28, 2012);
• No-water and low-water power plant cooling (March 28, 2012);
• Ubiquitous methane leak detection through novel sensors & sensing platforms (March 29, 2012); and
• Improved wind & solar forecast accuracy through advanced sensors, algorithms and computational resources (March 30, 2012).

Click on each of the links above for the agenda and workshop outputs associated with that technology area. These outputs will advise the actions of ARPA-E towards the most promising and appropriate high-impact potential research funding opportunities and management strategies.