Funding small businesses is a critical component of ARPA-E’s mission to develop high-risk, high-reward energy technologies that could fundamentally change how we generate, store, and use energy. Generally speaking, many of these potentially game-changing technologies are too early-stage to attract private-sector investment. ARPA-E nurtures small businesses and budding entrepreneurs by providing them with funding, subject matter expertise, and commercialization support. ARPA-E’s investment plays a pivotal role in de-risking early-stage energy technologies developed by small businesses to get…
We recently sat down with new ARPA-E Program Director, Dr. Olga Spahn, to discuss her time at Sandia National Laboratories, her plans for the ENLITENED program, and her hopes for future R&D investment at the Agency. What brought you to ARPA-E? I managed an internal Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) program activity that led to follow on ARPA-E projects. I was also a line manager for ARPA-E performers at SNL. In that capacity, I got to know the ARPA-E Program Director and learned more about ARPA-E mission and program philosophy. I was impressed with what I learned and when the…
ARPA-E awardee Skyscrape recently teamed up with Ralph Lauren to incorporate ‘Intelligent Insulation’ into Team USA’s Opening Ceremony Parade Uniform for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The uniform includes a parka made with Skyscrape’s temperature-responsive insulating fabric, as well as a mid-layer jacket, pant, gloves, and boots. The uniforms are made with recycled polyester fiber composed of post-consumer plastic bottles, each proudly manufactured in the United States. ARPA-E originally funded the thermo-adaptive textile technology at the core of Team USA’s parade uniform to…
We recently sat down with new ARPA-E Program Director, Dr. Simon Freeman, to discuss his background, interest in energy, and goals during his tenure at ARPA-E. What brings you to ARPA-E? For me, ARPA-E offers a chance to “do the most good”. Climate change impacts and resource sustainability concerns will be the defining challenges of this century. As we shift to a necessarily carbon neutral economy (and then a carbon negative one) there will be many transitional challenges to solve. How will we mitigate climate impacts and simultaneously shift to this new economy? ARPA-E provides the…
ARPA-E launched the ATLANTIS program back in 2018 as our first structured effort to move the technological needle within the offshore wind energy space. With just a few short years of advanced research and development under its belt, ATLANTIS is already drawing recognition from high places. The Biden-Harris Administration released a fact sheet on January 12, 2022 detailing U.S. investments in deploying clean energy through several actions, including advancing offshore wind deployment. The White House fact sheet also highlights a recent report by the Department of Energy (DOE), which…
ARPA-E is a high-risk, high-reward agency that changes what’s possible in energy. With the help of our awardees, supporters, and other stakeholders, we achieved a striking amount in 2021. The Technology ARPA-E launched 11 new programs covering a range of energy applications in 2021, including focused programs, Exploratory Topics, OPEN 2021, and SCALEUP. Focused programs are the foundation of this mission-driven agency. Program Directors lead program development with their team through up to a year of intense effort, culminating in a detailed Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), to…
What if the key to unlocking low-carbon, nitrogen-rich fertilizer came to you in a flash? That’s exactly what happened to ARPA-E awardee Nitricity, who developed a way to create their own lightning that separates nitrogen from the air with practically zero carbon dioxide (CO2) impact. For those of us who’ve forgotten most of our high school chemistry and physics, lightning is key to allowing plants to grow. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient that plants take up from the soil. Lightning fixes nitrogen to fertilize plants by creating an electric field so strong that it turns the air into a…
ARPA-E's REMEDY (Reducing Emissions of Methane Every Day of the Year) program is a three-year, $35 million research effort aimed at reducing methane emissions from three specific point sources from the coal, oil, and gas sector. These three sources are responsible for 10% of anthropogenic methane emissions. REMEDY seeks technical solutions that can achieve 99.5% methane conversion and commercial scalability. If successful, REMEDY systems could dramatically reduce U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at low cost. ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Jack Lewnard leads the REMEDY program and focuses…
Fuel cells use the chemical energy in fuels to produce clean, safe, and efficient electricity. Fuel cells can also be used to provide distributed power generation (DG), which refers to electricity generation located at or near the site where it will be used. Efficient, fuel-flexible, cost-competitive DG systems provide reliable stationary combined heat and power (CHP) for a variety of applications, including commercial buildings and data centers. There is a critical need to develop fuel cell technologies that can enable DG at low cost and with high efficiency. These technologies have…
On September 7, 2021, WHOOP launched its latest wearable fitness device, WHOOP 4.0, which will feature Sila Nanotechnologies’ new battery technology. Their technology replaces graphite anodes with silicon (Si) to increase the energy density of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, which can reduce battery size without sacrificing safety or performance. Sila Nanotechnologies’ anode technology helps enable the WHOOP 4.0’s slim design. Compared with the previous model, the WHOOP 4.0 has 17%…