-
Building on the ARPA-E ALPHA program and synergies with the Fusion Industry Association and the National Academies recommendation, ARPA-E is exploring opportunities for a potential new fusion program that is broader in R&D scope than ALPHA while pursuing the same vision as ALPHA: catalyze R&D pathways to lower the cost and accelerate the development time scale for commercially viable fusion energy. 

This event convened leading experts in electric motors, power electronics, thermal transport, advanced materials and manufacturing, and hybrid/electric aviation to identify innovative research paths forward for the development of disruptive technologies in electric propulsion that can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of commercial aviation while improving its economic viability and competitiveness.

-
ARPA-E seeks information regarding the role of flexible carbon capture in terms of plant- and grid-level performance, economics and emissions. This workshop will focus on the impact of a growing share of renewable generation on conventional power plants equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems.

-
The PERFORM program aims to shift the operations and planning to a risk-driven paradigm. Future operations and investment strategies will more closely resemble portfolio management practices; resource offers will be differentiated by their overall historical performance and prediction of their real-time performance. This shift enables the ability to balance the tradeoff between minimizing costs versus delivery risk while providing the foundation for an incentive compatible environment that efficiently mitigates risk. This program will provide grid operators a transparent quantification of their system position and overall risk exposure, which does not exist today.

-
ARPA-E convened people from diverse industries to discuss technologies for enabling advanced nuclear reactors to achieve operating cost profiles approximating those of natural gas combined cycle plants.

ARPA-E hosted a roundtable discussion on “Operating at Extremes: Tools for Enhanced Geothermal Systems” on September 21, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) have the potential to improve the economics and reduce the geographic restrictions of geothermal energy, but unlocking this resource will require changes to surveying and drilling technologies. ARPA-E convened leading experts in academic geosciences, petroleum engineering, enhanced geothermal systems, high-temperature electronics, space-based measurements, and geological storage to identify innovations in subsurface measurement and drilling techniques to enable economic operation of EGS.

This workshop convened leading experts in control and systems engineering, co-design, dynamics, modeling, optimization, electrical and mechanical systems, hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, power electronics, generators and structural engineering; as well as developers of specific classes of energy conversion technologies, including wind, wave, tidal and riverine energies, and key enabling technologies like new optimization techniques, multi-scale computer algorithms, distributed sensors, intelligent signal processing and actuator networks.  

-
The workshop convened leading experts in machine learning, artificial intelligence, topology optimization methodologies, inverse design methodologies, dimensionality reduction techniques, and general engineering design and optimization (including vendors of existing design tools and software), to identify innovations that have the potential to drastically improve the speed and quality of complex engineering design and thereby accelerate the development of next generation energy technologies whose discovery would otherwise be highly unlikely.

-
The workshop convened leading experts in cementitious material development, manufacturing, distribution, and end-use to identify innovation which significantly improves concrete durability, lowers its energy footprint, and results in next-generation, cost-effective materials to address our current infrastructure challenges. Participants will lend their expertise to help ARPA-E explore innovative technologies to determine relevant and compelling metrics that will define a successful research program. 

-
ARPA-E hosted a workshop entitled “The Energy-Smart Farm: Distributed Intelligence Networks for Highly Variable and Resource Constrained Crop Production Environments,” on February 13-14, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ.