Slick Sheet: Project
GridBright will develop a simple and secure solution for sharing grid-related data to improve grid efficiency, reliability, and resiliency in a manner that preserves security and integrity. GridBright will use the Agile development model to construct several proof-of-concept software pipelines, performing penetration and compromise testing and a quantitative evaluation of each against existing requirements. The solution will create a simpler secure grid data exchange process for the electric grid and utility industries.

Slick Sheet: Project
The Vanderbilt University team will develop a new bipolar membrane featuring a three-dimensional water splitting or water formation junction region, prepared by an electrospinning process. The team’s membrane will allow for higher current density operation as compared to conventional BPMs while maintining a low operating voltage, long-term durability, and high separation efficiency. These membranes will be useful in electrodialysis, electrolysis, and fuel cell applications.

Slick Sheet: Project
The University of Virginia (U.Va.), in collaboration with C-Crete Technologies, is developing a new approach for making cement by leveraging the ways in which certain mineral silicates react with carbon dioxide and water. These reactions produce mineral phases that are much stronger and more stable than commercial cements, thereby reducing CO2 emissions and energy use over time. Chemically, the products of these reactions share more in common with ancient Roman cements than they do with OPC.

Slick Sheet: Project
3M will develop a film that passively radiates heat away from an engineered surface for use in cooling applications. Using a unique, weather resistant polymer composition, the team will improve the film’s ability to reflect sunlight and ultraviolet (UV) light, thus boosting performance while also increasing its lifespan. This film builds upon radiative cooling technology developed in prior ARPA-E awards to Stanford University and SkyCool Systems, a partner in this project.

Slick Sheet: Project
The University of Minnesota (UMN) will develop a net-load management framework that rapidly identifies neighborhood-units to support grid infrastructure and enable ultrafast coordinated management. UMN’s project will rethink power recovery from near blackout conditions with a focus on rapid energization and maximizing power duration. This project’s approach could fundamentally change the way large contingencies are managed.

Slick Sheet: Project
Achates Power will develop an opposed-piston engine suitable for hybrid electric vehicle applications. The team will use a unique gasoline compression ignition design that minimizes energy losses (e.g., heat transfer) typical in conventional internal combustion engines. A motor-generator integrated on each engine crankshaft will provide independent control to each piston and eliminate all torque transmitted across the crankshaft connection, thus reducing engine size, mass, cost, friction, and noise.

Slick Sheet: Project
LBNL will use advanced microfabrication technology to build and scale low-cost, compact, higher-power multi-beam ion accelerators. These accelerators will be able to increase the ion current up to 100 times, helping to enable a new learning curve for compact accelerator technology. MEMS (micro-electro mechanical systems) technology enables massively parallel, low-cost batch fabrication of ion beam accelerators. The team proposes to scale ion accelerators based on MEMS to higher beam power and pack hundreds to thousands of ion beamlets on silicon wafers.

Slick Sheet: Project
Sandia National Laboratories will develop advanced core materials for grid-level electrical transformers, improving their efficiency and resiliency. Current transformers feature copper windings surrounding a magnetic core. The project team’s new core material seeks to increase electrical efficiency by at least 10% while enabling a 50% reduction in transformer size. The core will be robust, withstanding EMPs and GMDs that threaten today’s grid. Sandia will also develop additives that can be added to the oil in existing transformers as a retrofit as well as included in new transformers.

Slick Sheet: Project
Supercool Metals, LLC will explore manufacturing processes for high-strength, light-weight structural metal parts to enable more energy-efficient transportation. Lightweighting is a necessity for the automotive and aerospace industries, and increasingly important for the transition to hybrid and fully electric vehicles. Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), which will be investigated in this project, are complex, light-weight alloys with significantly higher mechanical properties (e.g., strength, toughness, corrosion resistance) than conventional alloys.

Slick Sheet: Project
Virginia Tech will accelerate deployment of power electronics into grid-scale energy applications by developing 20 kV GaN devices integrated into a medium-voltage (MV) power module. For the GaN power devices, high-quality substrates and innovative growth techniques will be used to reduce the background impurity contamination in the thick layers needed to block 20 kV. The power module will be fabricated using three-dimensional packaging for improved thermal management and high-power density at 20 kV.