U.S. Department of Energy Announces 2011 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit

WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that it will hold the second annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit February 28 - March 2, 2011 at the Gaylord Convention Center just outside Washington, D.C. The event, which will unite key players from all sectors of the nation’s energy innovation community to share ideas for developing and deploying the next generation of clean energy technologies, is being co-hosted by the Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) and Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries Organization (CTSI), with support from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and the Kauffman Foundation.

“After such a successful first Summit, I’m excited to again bring our nation’s brightest minds to Washington to discuss solutions to our energy challenges,” said Secretary Chu. “This unique forum will help facilitate the partnerships necessary to bring game-changing technologies to market quickly, which is critical to securing America’s global technology leadership and creating new jobs.”

The event will feature a technology showcase with more than 100 exhibits from ARPA-E-funded projects in areas such as grid-scale storage, power electronics, batteries for electric vehicles, building efficiency, advanced carbon capture, and electrofuels. The showcase will also feature many promising projects that submitted proposals but that ARPA-E was unable to fund. ARPA-E also will host a pre-conference workshop to provide insight into new program areas and to allow participants to collaborate on solutions to energy challenges.

The inaugural ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, held in March 2010, attracted more than 1,700 attendees from 49 states and 16 countries. Attendees included members of research and development institutions, global corporations, technology entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and government officials. More than 50% of attendees were high level executives.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar, and many other industry leaders will be featured speakers at the event.

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