Nick Reddyhoff
How a government funding agency aims to solve the energy problem.
Radical innovation can alter the landscape of an entire industry. That's the goal of the newly formed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, part of the U.S. Department of Energy. Modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), ARPA-E was funded for the first time in last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to pursue transformational solutions to the energy problem.
ARPA-E was originally proposed in a National Academies report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm. Energy Secretary Steven Chu--then director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory--was part of the committee that proposed to create a nimble, creative agency.
After President Obama announced this effort in April, we received nearly 3,700 submissions. Five hundred expert reviewers put in nearly 8,700 hours to choose 37 projects--1 percent of the submissions.
The projects were selected through the most rigorous peer review process the DOE has engaged in. Secretary Chu sent a letter to the presidents of major research universities and the heads of the engineering societies asking them to name the best scientists and engineers in the country. We asked these people to serve as reviewers, arguing simply that this work was part of their patriotic duty to our country and the world.
We are now hiring top practicing scientists and engineers to serve as program directors. In addition to guiding the projects, they will seek out additional areas that are ripe for breakthroughs.
The 37 projects we're funding span the spectrum--renewable energy, energy storage, industrial and building efficiency, petroleum-free vehicles, carbon capture (for some companies addressing these issues, see the TR50). The ideas are potentially revolutionary. They are risky, and many of them will fail. But this is high-risk, high-reward research: if one or two ideas lead to transformative technologies, it will be among the best investments we've ever made.
We are determined to attract the best and brightest minds to solving the energy problem. This is truly the scientific and engineering challenge of our time. Scientists and engineers have come to our nation's aid in past times of need, and it is time for them to do so again.
The stakes could not be higher. Great ideas have transformed our world before. But new great ideas on energy might do more than just change our world--they might help save it.
Arun Majumdar was appointed director of ARPA-E in October 2009.
The govt. could easily make loans to farmers that have enough waste to make vast amounts of Methane converted to electricy. What the farmer had paid for electricity would now pay off the loan. We would clean up a lot of the methane that escapes into the atmosphere and power a large portion on rural areas throughout the country.
The Governments need to show something to make the public think they are trying to give them what they want, without giving up what they want, more money! The Government works for itself and not for those who put them in power. Vote in all new with short term limits and make "them" think about who is supposed to run this country, the people.
We need to not only replace every energy using device with more frugally efficient ones that would solve many problems, but also decide when AC or DC power is more appropriate to minimize energy waste due to conversion. Energy is also wasted keeping the grid alive, may have to decentralize to mini-grids and get smart at the same time. Then we got to stop thinking about yesterdays energy products and push the new materials and innovations to the forefront, as the ones always showcased in this ejournal. What the heck good is a breakthrough if it takes 10 years to get to market? Stop buying energy products from China, we need jobs to design, build and buy better energy products. Of course I have the small view and not the big picture.
I also think the best and the brightest minds are probably an overkill, we already know what to do. I think too much time is spent deciding and planning also passing and pocketing bucks. By the time practical work needs to be accomplished tax payers must pay again and work for cheap too. If you want support from me, put solar on my house, not on the big corporation down the street, soon to close and move to China.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
Our list of the 50 most innovative companies, including the following:
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2 Comments
hmm
"The ideas are potentially revolutionary. They are risky, and many of them will fail. But this is high-risk, high-reward research: if one or two ideas lead to transformative technologies, it will be among the best investments we've ever made." - This technology has already been discovered, over 100 years ago. Everybody just forgot about Tesla's theories or what? We have cars that run on 100% water, the government hides it. We have O/U generators that use magnets to propel, producing up to 300% more energy than it costs to run the generator. The government likes hiding those as well.
Did Zero Point Energy fall off also? The government doesn't want a source of energy that can be used for free, the government wants their money, so they're using our tax dollars to fund a resesarch team that will find another way to produce energy that the government can charge us for using. This is why our population will never evolve. Everyone is so worried about getting paid. We will never get a base on the moon, we will never get to mars, because everyone cares about their money more than they care about the advancement in civilization.
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