ARPA-E and the California Energy Commission (CEC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), solidifying joint efforts to advance breakthrough energy technologies. “CEC and ARPA-E have long supported transformational energy innovation, and we have shared goals to enhance the economic and energy security of California and our entire nation,” said ARPA-E Director Evelyn N. Wang. “This collaboration will accelerate our critical work to research, develop, demonstrate, and ultimately deploy energy technologies.” “Clean energy research and development is key to combatting the…

On April 11, 2023, ARPA-E awardee Emrgy raised $18.4M for their proprietary hydrokinetic turbine (HKT) in a Series A funding round led by Oval Park Capital, including key investors Fifth Wall, Blitzscaling Ventures, Overlay Capital, and Veriten. Emrgy will use this funding to open their turbine assembly facility in Aurora, Colorado with an estimated production capacity of 5 megawatts per month, deploy their distributed hydropower plants, and hire staff for their development, operations, and engineering teams. Emrgy received $3.34M in ARPA-E funding in September 2021 as part of our…

ARPA-E awardee Enzinc raised $4.5 million in seed funding for their zinc microsponge EV battery anode in a round led by Portland-based 3x5 Partners in July of 2022. This seed funding, along with a $1.8 million Bringing Rapid Innovation Development to Green Energy (BRIDGE) grant from the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program through the California Energy Commission (CEC), has allowed them to finalize testing of their prototype and design an automated production line for their anode. Alongside the $1.8 million BRIDGE grant, Enzinc has won four out of the five CEC grants within the…

In our final day at the 2023 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, we started with ‘Coffee with ARPA-E,’ a continuation of yesterday’s event where folks had the opportunity to network with and learn from ARPA-E leadership, Program Directors, Technology-to-Market Advisors, and Fellows about opportunities related to ARPA-E and discussions about moving transformational technologies out of the lab and into the market. ​ Coffee with ARPA-E Following ‘Coffee with ARPA-E,’ morning breakout sessions consisted of three panels on the blue economy, ARPA-E’s SCALEUP program, and the new…

We had a jam-packed second day of the 2023 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. Day 2 of the Summit kicked off with "Coffee with ARPA-E," where attendees had the opportunity to network with ARPA-E leadership, Program Directors, Tech-to-Market Advisors, and Fellows, and to talk about the future of energy innovation and technology. ​ Coffee with ARPA-E The morning began with Fast Pitches about Nuclear and Materials from ARPA-E Program Directors Dr. Ahmed Diallo, Dr. Robert Ledoux, and Dr. Jenifer Shafer. ​ ARPA-E Fast Pitches - Dr. Jenifer Shafer, Dr. Robert Ledoux, and Dr. Ahmed…

The 2023 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit is in full swing here in National Harbor, MD. The Summit began with opening remarks from ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang. Director Wang shared her journey from being a four-time ARPA-E performer to current ARPA-E Director shaping the direction of the Agency. She reaffirmed her confidence in people’s capacity to transform the energy landscape “when there’s a unified focus on tackling real-world challenges quickly.” ​ ARPA-E Director Dr. Evelyn N. Wang “Together, we can develop real, clean energy solutions that are scalable, deployable, and…

ARPA-E’s Performance-based Energy Resource Feedback, Optimization, and Risk Management (PERFORM) program seeks to develop new grid management systems that represent the relative delivery risk of individual electricity generation resources and balance the collective risk of all assets across the grid. The program has funded twelve project teams across the country to build software platforms that optimize grid management as the penetration of variable renewable resources continues to increase. However, the difficulty of obtaining and sharing sensitive transmission grid data has historically…

Dr. William Horak  currently serves as a Program Director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). He comes to ARPA-E from Brookhaven National Lab, where he worked for 40 years. He served in leadership roles as the Chair of the Energy Science and Technology Department and as Chair of the Nuclear Science and Technology Department. He was part of the DOE team that analyzed the Chernobyl accident and managed numerous programs in nuclear safety, international safeguards, and energy-systems development. What brought you to ARPA-E? I had worked with ARPA-E on workshops…

ARPA-E awardee Syzygy Plasmonics recently raised $76 million in Series C funding from Carbon Direct Capital along with Aramco Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Lotte Chemical, and Toyota Ventures. Early investors in Syzygy also joined the round, including EVOK Innovations, The Engine, Equinor Ventures, Goose Capital, Horizons Ventures, Pan American Energy, and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. Syzygy previously raised over $35 million in public and private funding for their novel technology. Syzygy’s breakthrough technology provides a deep decarbonization platform that relies on…

Dr. Laurent Pilon currently serves as a Program Director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). He comes to ARPA-E from the University of California, Los Angeles where he is a professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. His area of research focused on the nexus of interfacial and transport phenomena, radiative heat transfer, and material science for the development of sustainable energy conversion, storage, and efficiency technologies. What brought you to ARPA-E? First, the recent fires and the major drought in California gave me a sense of…