Blog Posts
We’re excited to announce a new partnership with DoD’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) to further demonstrate and validate ARPA-E derived technologies at DoD installations across the country. ESTCP targets DoD’s urgent environmental and installation energy needs to improve Defense readiness, resilience and costs. Projects under this partnership will conduct demonstrations to validate the performance and operational costs of promising ARPA-E technologies and provide valuable data needed for end-user acceptance and to accelerate the transition of these technologies to commercial use.

Slick Sheet: Program

Slick Sheet: Project
Oceanit is developing a look-ahead subsurface sensor system that would take advantage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and electromagnetic (EM) resistivity techniques to avoid damaging existing utilities when undergrounding powerlines. The proposed system pairs an EM sensor on an underground drill string and an antenna mounted to a UAV flying overhead to expand the distance and sensitivity of object identification underground. The system would use machine learning interpretation and high-resolution imaging capabilities to provide real-time guidance for the drill path.

Slick Sheet: Project
Sandia National Laboratories is developing a real-time, drill-mounted, cross-bore detector using ground penetrating radar to reduce the risk of damaging existing utilities while installing new underground power lines. Unlike other drill-mounted ground penetrating radar sensors that measure broad frequency bands and produce large quantities of data that make real-time communication with surface systems difficult, the proposed sensor uses a narrow band frequency domain.

Slick Sheet: Project
Melni Technologies is redesigning and developing novel medium-voltage power cable splice kits that require fewer steps and streamline connections to greatly reduce human errors and boost the reliability of underground electrical power distribution systems. The splice kits feature Melni's proprietary Dual Helix Spiral Technology, which expands and contracts as electrical currents and temperatures vary. The kit also contains an integrated housing system with medium-voltage insulation and components that require only basic hand tools for installation.

Slick Sheet: Project
RTX Technology Research Center (RTRC) is developing a mobile sensing platform using radar approaches based on quantum radio frequency sensing together with artificial intelligence to locate existing utility lines prior to installing underground power distribution lines.

Slick Sheet: Project
Sandia National Laboratories will develop a solid-state surge arrester device that would protect the grid from very fast electromagnetic pulses that threaten the grid’s reliability and performance. Sandia’s arresters take advantage of the properties of granular metals—a composition of metal nanoparticles within an insulating matrix—to divert sudden and short-lived high-voltage and high-current surges of energy safely away from the grid. The proposed arrester responds on a nano-second timescale, which is faster than existing lightning surge arresters currently on the grid.

Slick Sheet: Project
Cornell University is developing a worm-inspired digging tool with a combustion-powered soil fracturing head to minimize environmental disruption, enhance efficiency, and reduce costs of undergrounding power cables. The Mini-Mole leverages soft robotics to allow for improved steering and movement compared with conventional approaches and would be capable of tunneling, laying conduit, and installing cables without damaging the surface.

Slick Sheet: Project
Arcbyt is developing a small-diameter ultrafast tunneling construction tool to underground power lines in heterogeneous soil conditions. The tool can operate in both hard rock and soft sediments and enable cost-effective undergrounding. Digging through hard rock typically requires higher-power, oversized machines, which complicates undergrounding in urban and suburban environments. Instead, Arcbyt seeks to tunnel through hard rock using thermal spallation drilling which breaks rock into small pieces via thermal shock without touching or melting any rock material.

Slick Sheet: Project
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is developing an artificial intelligence system for processing geophysical survey data into digital twin and augmented reality in order to identify existing utilities and other subsurface obstacles before installing underground power distribution lines. The system would autonomously process data from multiple types of geophysical sensors to detect and classify anomalies underground and create a digital representation of the subsurface for geographic information systems.