U.S. Government Pledges $2 Billion For Solar Energy Development

On July 3rd the U.S. President Obama announced that the U.S. Department of Energy will invest nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars to subsidize two companies to build solar power plants to support the development of the U.S. solar industry and increase employment.

Obama said this fund will come from the total 8620 billion of economic stimulus package, Abengoa Solar will receive 1.45 billion U.S. dollars of loan guarantees for construction in Arizona called “Solana” and ” The world’s largest solar power plant “, it is expected to create 1,600 construction jobs; abundant solar energy manufacturing companies will build a solar power plant both in Colorado and Indiana, , expected to create 2,000 construction jobs and more than 1,500 permanent jobs.

“We will continue to compete actively, ensure the future of industrial employment and take root in the United States,” Obama said in a weekly broadcast and network.

According to Abengoa company,  The generated power of “Solana” Solar power plant will be 280 megawatts, can meet electricity 70 000 households demand, can produce electric power worthy four billion U.S. dollars after 30 years of completion. In addition, it can reduce the 475,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

DOE Issues Concentrating Solar Report To Congress

The US Department of Energy has issued a report to congress that explores a number of strategies to reduce the water consumption of concentrating solar power (CSP) electricity generation, a promising renewable energy option that may substantially increase water demands in some of the country’s most arid regions.

The report, dryly titled (no pun intended) Concentrating Solar Power Commercial Application Study: Reducing Water Consumption of Concentrating Solar Power Electricity Generation (PDF), was published by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy this year. It looks at a range of CSP technologies – including parabolic troughs, linear Fresnel reflectors, power towers and dish/engine systems – and compares the water consumption, energy loss and capital costs of available cooling technologies (cooling is the most water-intensive process of CSP). As the report describes there are a number of tradeoffs associated with more water-efficient cooling processes:

As with fossil and nuclear power plants, water cooling is generally more economical than air cooling for CSP plants because water cooling has a lower capital cost and higher thermal efficiency, and it maintains its consistent efficiency levels year-round. In contrast, air cooling has reduced effectiveness when the air temperature is high. In the current commercial CSP plants, water is required to condense steam, provide make-up water for the steam cycle, and for mirror washing. The regions where CSP is most effective are those that have many hours of direct sunlight; these places often have relatively little water. Supplying water from more distant sources or purifying low quality water for CSP systems that use conventional water cooling can then increase costs. This report discusses various options by which CSP systems can operate efficiently with significantly less water consumption than they consume today.

The majority of new fossil power plants use evaporative water cooling to reject the steamcycle heat. A typical coal plant or nuclear plant consumes 500 gallons of water per M(gal/MWh) of electricity generated. This is similar to the water consumption by a power tower. A combined-cycle natural gas plant consumes about 200 gal/MWh. A water-cooled parabolic trough plant consumes about 800 gal/MWh. Of this, 2% is usefor mirror washing. Dish/engine systems only require water for mirror washing (approximately 20 gal/MWh)

To address water limitations and environmental regulations, air cooling can be used for new thermoelectric power plants, which eliminates over 90% of water usage. The typical dry-cooled power plant routes turbine exhaust steam directly to finned tubes on air-cooled condensors. A study of a dry-cooled parabolic trough plant located in the Mojave Desert concluded that dry cooling would provide 5% less electric energy on an annual basis and increase the cost of produced electricity by 7 to 9%. However, the results are location specific. For example, air cooling at a site in New Mexico would increase the cost of electricity by only 2% because maximum daytime temperatures are considerable lower there than in the Mojave Desert.

To download the full report visit: Concentrating Solar Power Commercial Application Study: Reducing Water Consumption of Concentrating Solar Power Electricity Generation (PDF).

Concentrated Solar Power Projects Receive $62 million From DOE

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced the selections of projects for investment of up to $62 million over five years to research, develop, and demonstrate Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems capable of providing low-cost electrical power.  This funding will support improvements in CSP systems, components, and thermal energy storage to accelerate the market-readiness of this renewable energy technology. Accelerating breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies supports the Administration’s strategy of diversifying the U.S. energy portfolio to increase our energy independence while fostering a fast-growing clean-energy economy.

“Developing low-cost, renewable energy generation is crucial to meeting our nation’s increasing demands for electricity,” said Secretary Chu. “By investing in the development of low-cost solar technologies we can create new jobs and pave the way towards a clean-energy future.”

CSP technologies concentrate the sun’s energy and capture that energy as heat, which then drives an engine or turbine to produce electrical power. CSP plants can include low-cost energy storage, allowing them to provide electricity even when the sun is not shining. Boosting these technologies today will generate the clean-technology careers of tomorrow and will help expand the market for utility-scale solar energy. The projects announced today will seek to improve component and system designs to extend operation to an average of about 18 hours per day, a level of production that would make it possible for these plants to displace traditional coal-burning power plants.

The thirteen award selections announced today fall into two areas:

Concentrating Solar Power Systems Studies – projects awarded under this category will evaluate the feasibility of a complete CSP baseload system and support development of prototype systems for field testing.  These selections include:

• Abengoa Solar, Inc. – Lakewood, CO – up to $10.6 million
  Abengoa Solar will develop a new power tower technology that captures heat in a high-temperature receiver at the top of an elevated tower.  The system will focus the sun’s rays to the tower using a 360-degree, surround reflector field on the ground and collect the heat in a salt fluid, which is used to make steam and drive a turbine.  The system will also incorporate a thermal storage system to allow it to operate for a period when the sun isn’t shining.  The ability to operate at higher temperatures will translate into more energy produced with the same size power plant.  Abengoa is currently the only company with a full-scale, operational power tower, and thus proving this technology could help it reach commercial maturity.
• eSolar, Inc. – Pasadena, CA – up to $10.8 million
  eSolar will design, build, and test a CSP power plant system with fundamentally new components.  Instead of one central tower and receiver, the plant will employ multiple, modular towers.  Using reflective mirrors, the sun’s radiation will heat a liquid salt within each receiver.  A specialized molten salt transport system will then move the high-temperature fluid to a molten-salt steam generator that produces electricity.  The system will also feature a thermal storage system.  Eventually, this technology could deliver lower-cost solar energy at a utility scale.
• Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne – Canoga Park, CA – up to $10.2 million
  Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will build on and advance the current solar power tower plant design.  The project will explore new materials for the central power tower receiver.  A novel thermal storage system will be developed and used, representing the first time such technology has been integrated into a CSP plant design.  A more efficient power cycle will help produce more electricity.  These improvements will all be made in the hopes of driving down the cost of solar energy.

Concentrating Solar Power Component Feasibility Studies – awards under this category focus on research and development of concepts and components that could be part of a CSP baseload system.  These selections include:

• General Atomics – San Diego, CA – up to $2.1 million
  General Atomics will carry out feasibility and design studies to validate the concept of supplying reliable, steady baseload power using a concentrating solar power plant integrated with sulfur-based energy storage.  The energy is stored through a chemical reaction, which potentially allows the energy to be stored for a much longer period of time.  The ability to store the heat captured by a CSP system during the day and continue running the power plant at night or when it’s cloudy makes solar power plants more reliable.
• HiTek Services, Inc. – Owens Cross Roads, AL – up to $3.0 million
  HiTek Services will focus on optimizing reflector array, or heliostat, designs in order to reduce the cost of using heliostats in a solar field.  All CSP systems use reflectors to collect and focus the sun’s rays to heat a receiving material, and heliostats represent the most expensive component of a CSP system.  By driving down the cost of reflector arrays, this project could significantly lower the up-front cost of CSP power plants.
• Infinia Corporation – Kennewick, WA – up to $3.0 million
  Infinia Corporation is developing a large-scale thermal energy storage solution that can be used with solar dishes.  The system will be essentially maintenance-free and will allow large amounts of energy to be stored in a cost-effective and efficient manner.  There is currently no commercial storage mechanism that is compatible with CSP solar dishes, and thus this storage technology could be a breakthrough for the CSP solar dish industry.
• PPG Industries, Inc. – Cheswick, PA – up to $3.0 million
  PPG Industries will develop a next-generation, low-cost reflector with increased reflectivity, increased durability,  and larger dimensions.  Increasing the performance of reflectors while pushing down the cost of materials and manufacturing will serve as an enabling technology for utility-scale CSP power plants.  The most significant maintenance cost of a CSP plant is cleaning and replacing the mirrors, and thus this new reflector design could have a significant impact on total plant cost.
• SENER Engineering and Systems Inc. – San Francisco, CA – up to $3.1 million
  SENER is developing a high-efficiency thermal storage system for solar plants with technology that can extend the operating range of thermal storage using solid, modular blocks.  Higher temperature storage has a direct impact upon the amount of energy that can be extracted and converted into electricity, and is an essential component for CSP plants to become competitive with coal-burning plants.
• SkyFuel, Inc. – Albuquerque, NM – up to $4.3 million
  SkyFuel will develop a low-cost CSP trough system with significantly larger dimensions than today’s troughs for use in baseload concentrating solar power generation. Increasing the operating temperature and output of CSP power plants that use a trough-shaped reflector to heat a receiving fluid will help make CSP a viable technology for baseload power.
• SunTrough Energy, Inc. – Chatsworth, CA – up to $4.5 million
  SunTrough Energy will develop a new class of solar concentrators and build a pilot manufacturing facility to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the new technology.  The design will place an emphasis on lightweight materials and mass-manufacturability.  A focus on manufacturing will lead to smaller and fewer parts, simpler assembly procedures, and more rapid field installation, all of which will drive the total cost of a CSP facility down.
• Terrafore, Inc. – Riverside, CA – up to $1.4 million
  Terrafore is developing an efficient and economical thermal storage system for baseload power generation that takes advantage of the energy that is transferred when materials melt and solidify.  One of the primary challenges for solar energy is dealing with the issue of intermittency; in other words, how to supply reliable power when the sun is not shining.  Therefore, optimizing the design of CSP systems to store the heat for later use could help build confidence in the widespread adoption of solar energy.
• University of South Florida – Tampa, FL – up to $2.5 million
  The University of South Florida will develop and demonstrate an innovative thermal energy storage system based on materials that absorb heat when changing from a solid to a liquid and release heat when changing from a liquid to a solid.  Integrating thermal energy storage into CSP plants makes CSP a reliable source of baseload electricity.
• Wilson TurboPower, Inc. – Woburn, MA – up to $3.7 million
  Wilson TurboPower is utilizing a small transportable turbine power system in a modular CSP solar power tower configuration.  By building a more compact CSP power block, the power block can be assembled in-factory and shipped to the worksite.  The power block design also incorporates an advanced cooling method that reduces water usage.  This novel design will operate at high temperatures and allow for super-efficient operation.

Please visit the Solar Energy Technologies Program home page for more information about the program and selections.

www.energy.gov

DOE Releases $60 Million More for Small Businesses In Clean Energy Innovation Projects

At a White House Energy Innovation meeting, Under Secretary of Energy Kristina Johnson announced that $60 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is available to continue supporting innovative small business research and development leading to deployment of clean energy technologies.  This is a Phase II funding opportunity under the Department’s Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program for companies that have already demonstrated successful results with new technologies and can now show potential to meet market needs.

“The Department of Energy is committed to unlocking small business innovation in the clean energy economy,” said Under Secretary Johnson. “This second funding opportunity will help innovative small businesses, create jobs and move our country forward.”

In Phase I, 125 grants of up to $150,000 each were awarded to 107 small advanced technology firms across the U.S.  The 125 Phase I awardees were competitively selected from a pool of 950 applicants through a special fast-track process with an emphasis on near-term commercialization and job creation. Phase II funding is only available to companies selected in Phase I.

Additional information on the SBIR program and today’s funding announcement is available from the SBIR/STTR Programs Office.

www.energy.gov

DOE Invests Another $200 Million In Wind and Solar Power

Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Department will invest more than US $200 million over five years to expand and accelerate the development, commercialization, and use of solar and water power technologies throughout the United States.

New York Receives $40M From DOE For Solar Power

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) this week awarded New York communities US $40 million in federal stimulus funds to help property owners implement energy efficiency and small-scale clean energy projects. New York City and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) received the grants through the federal Retrofit Ramp-Up Program·

Commercial Buildings Going Green Receive Support From The DOE

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced support for energy-saving commercial building projects as part of an ongoing effort by DOE to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in the United States. With money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, DOE’s national laboratories will select and fund technical experts to provide technical guidance to commercial building owners and operators.  The goal of this Commercial Building Partnerships (CBP) initiative is to increase the energy efficiency of selected new and existing buildings.

DOE’s CBP initiative will foster collaborative relationships among the owners and operators of commercial buildings, researchers from DOE national laboratories and private-sector technical experts. Building owners receive technical expertise on how to design, build and maintain low-energy buildings that can reduce energy use and lower energy bills across their building portfolios. These collaborations help to move energy-saving strategies into the marketplace quickly and cost-effectively. Each of the CBP building projects will be documented in publicly available case studies that will provide detailed energy use data and best practices to other building operators across the country.

Three DOE national laboratories are managing this new effort: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.

“CBP participants will create buildings with measured energy savings of at least 50 percent for new construction and 30 percent for existing buildings,” said Paul Torcellini, group manager for commercial building research at NREL. “This initiative is unique because it demonstrates that it’s cost-effective to make buildings more energy efficient, and that energy-efficient buildings are easy to replicate.”

Applicants can apply through the laboratories for the following two initiatives:

Call for Energy Efficient Commercial Building Projects

To get involved, owners and operators of commercial buildings—retail and office buildings, for example—will submit plans for projects that will upgrade new or existing buildings, and they commit to working with the laboratories and technical experts to make these buildings significantly more energy efficient. Although they receive no direct funding, owners and operators have access to state-of-the-art technical guidance to implement energy efficiency technologies throughout the design, construction, and evaluation of their building and retrofit projects. This technical expertise includes guidance with energy modeling, assessing and choosing appropriate energy efficiency measures, and energy performance verification.

Online applications to the call for projects are due by May 10, 2010.

Request for Proposals from Commercial Building Technical Experts

Technical expert teams and measurement and verification technical contractors interested in providing technical guidance to the successful applicants to the call for projects can respond to this request for proposals (RFP). Technical expert teams need to provide a broad range of technical expertise including all or some of the following areas: architecture, engineering, HVAC and controls, daylighting, lighting, energy modeling, commissioning, building auditing and data collection, and cost estimation. Using Recovery Act funding, the participating national laboratories will contract with technical experts to provide this guidance.

Completed proposals are due by May 10, 2010.

Learn more about Commercial Building Partnerships and these new opportunities at the Building Technologies Program website.

www.energy.gov

DOE Report Explains How Recovery Act Benefits Small Business

The Department of Energy today released a new report highlighting the benefits of the Recovery Act to small businesses throughout the clean, renewable energy industry and environmental management sector. The report found that as of early March 2010, small businesses have been selected to receive nearly $5.4 billion in funding across a number of Recovery Act and related programs, including loans, loan guarantees, grants, contracts and tax incentives, in partnership with the Department of Treasury. The report highlights 26 small businesses in a range of clean energy technologies, such as wind, solar, biofuels, along with critical new infrastructure, like Smart Grid, advanced batteries, energy storage, and energy efficiency tools. It also notes small businesses that are helping advance responsible environmental clean-up efforts.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Small Business Administrator Karen Mills are highlighting the report as part of a media conference call. The call also featured Scott Lang, CEO of Silver Spring Networks and Harrison Dillon, President and CTO Solazyme.

“Small business are the backbone of job creation in this country and have been a spring board for innovation in the clean energy sector,” said Secretary Chu. “The work these companies do and the innovation they produce will go a long way in helping our economy grow and our nation succeed.”

“Small businesses have created about 64 percent of the new jobs over the past 15 years,” said Administrator Mills.  “Already, small businesses are one of the driving forces in the green energy sector. With resources like those provided through the Department of Energy and SBA, we have a unique opportunity to support the creation of good, well-paying jobs here at home that will also help keep America competitive.”

Read the full report.

www.energy.gov

DOE Has Announced 12 Projects To Receive Federal Funding

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program paves the way for federal support of clean energy projects that use innovative technologies, and spurs further investment in these advanced technologies.  A principal purpose of the Loan Guarantee Program is to encourage early commercial use in the United States of new or significantly improved technologies in energy projects.  DOE believes that accelerated commercial use of new or improved technologies will help to create jobs and sustain economic growth, yield environmental benefits, and produce a more stable and secure energy supply.

DOE’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program provides loans to automobile and automobile part manufacturers for the cost of re-equipping, expanding, or establishing manufacturing facilities in the United States to produce advanced technology vehicles or qualified components, and for associated engineering integration costs.

To date, DOE has conditionally offered or closed 12 loans or loan guarantees.  According to estimates from the companies, these projects will collectively create or save about 50,000 jobs.  They will also lead to the capacity to produce more than 3 GW of clean power each year and will avoid more than 30 million tons of CO2 per year.  The vehicle projects will save 270 million gallons of gasoline each year.

The following is a list of the 12 projects announced thus far:

• Solyndra, Inc. was awarded a $535 million loan guarantee to manufacture innovative cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels that provide clean, renewable energy. [Solyndra press release]
• Nordic Windpower USA has been offered a conditional commitment for $16 million to support the expansion of its assembly plant in Pocatello, Idaho to produce its one megawatt wind turbine. [Nordic Windpower press release]
• Beacon Power, an energy storage company, has been offered a conditional commitment of $43 million to support the construction of its 20 megawatt flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York that will help ensure the reliable delivery of renewable energy to the electricity grid. [Beacon Power press release]
• Red River Environmental Products, LLC has been offered a conditional commitment for $245 million to build an activated carbon (AC) manufacturing facility near Coushatta, Red River Parish, Louisiana. [Red River press release]
• The Department of Energy offered conditional commitments for a total of $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for the construction and operation of two new nuclear reactors at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Burke, Georgia. [Vogtle Electric press release]
• BrightSource Energy, Inc. has been offered conditional commitments for more than $1.37 billion in loan guarantees under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support the construction and start-up of three utility-scale concentrated solar power plants.[BrightSource Energy press release]
• First Wind – Kahuku Wind Power, LLC has received a conditional commitment for $117 million to install twelve 2.5 MW wind turbine generators along with a battery energy storage system for electricity load stability.
• Sage Electrochromics has received a conditional commitment for $72 million to support the financing of the construction and operation of a 250,000 square foot, high volume manufacturing facility to produce SageGlass®, an energy-saving switchable window technology for commercial and residential use.
• Ford Motor Company has closed on a $5.9 billion loan to Ford Motor Company to transform factories across Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio to produce more fuel efficient models. [Ford Motor Company press release]
• Nissan has closed on a $1.4 billion loan to produce electric cars and battery packs at its manufacturing complex in Smyrna, Tennessee. The loan will aid in the construction of a new battery plant and modifications to the existing assembly facility. [Nissan press release]
• Tesla Motors has been offered a $465 million loan to finance a manufacturing facility for the Tesla Model S sedan and to support a facility to manufacture battery packs and electric drive trains. [Tesla Motors press release]
• Fisker Automotive has been offered a $528.7 million conditional loan for the development of two lines of plug-in hybrids that will save hundreds of millions of gallons of gasoline and offset millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2016. [Fisker Automotive press release]

Jobs created or saved (estimates provided by project sponsors):

Note: additional jobs will be created once facilities are operational.

Generation Capacity of Power Plants or of Products Manufactured

Avoided Emissions by Project

ATVM Fuel Savings

The vehicles supported by the first four ATVM loans will reduce fuel consumption by 270 million gallons a year between 2012 and 2014.  The calculation assumes average production volumes between 2012 and 2014, and that each vehicle travels 12,000 miles a year.  The fuel savings are based on comparisons to a comparable 2005 vehicle. As the projects ramp up beyond 2014, the fuel savings will increase.

www.energy.gov

DOE Announces $100M To Be Made Available In Recovery Act

At the inaugural ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit today, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $100 million in Recovery Act funding will be made available to accelerate innovation in green technology, increase America’s competitiveness and create new jobs. Today’s announcement comes as some of the nation’s top energy leaders and members of the scientific research community have gathered to ensure U.S. leadership in clean energy technologies.

Today’s announcement, the ARPA-E’s third round of funding opportunity, is focused specifically on three technology areas:

The three areas of focus included in today’s funding opportunity are:

1. Grid-Scale Rampable Intermittent Dispatchable Storage (GRIDS). ARPA-E seeks to develop new technologies to enable the widespread deployment of cost-effective grid-scale energy storage. While many valuable applications for grid-scale storage exist, this program focuses on developing energy storage technologies to balance the short-duration variability in renewable generation. By investing in the development of grid-scale energy storage technology, this funding opportunity will allow the U.S. to assume global technology and manufacturing leadership in the emerging and potentially massive global market for stationary electricity storage infrastructure.  This program seeks to develop revolutionary new storage systems that provide energy, cost, and cycle life comparable to pumped hydropower, but which are modular and can be widely implemented at any location across the power grid. Specifically, two areas will be considered: 1) proof of concept storage component projects focused on validating new, over-the-horizon electrical energy storage concepts, and 2) advanced system prototypes that address critical shortcomings of existing grid-scale energy storage technologies.   Ultimately, technologies developed through this program will be scalable to the megawatt and megawatt-hour levels of power and energy capacity. This program will complement other Department of Energy grid-scale energy storage efforts by focusing on technology prototyping and proof-of-concept R&D efforts rather than pilot demonstration projects.
2. Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology (ADEPT). ARPA-E seeks to invest in materials for fundamental advances in soft magnetics, high voltage switches, and reliable, high-density charge storage.  These investments will be coupled to advanced circuit architectures, and scalable manufacturing processes with the potential to leapfrog existing power converter performance while offering reductions in cost.  Specifically, three categories of performance and integration level will be considered: 1) fully-integrated, chip-scale power converters for applications including, but not limited to, compact, efficient  drivers for solid-state lighting, distributed micro-inverters for photovoltaics, and single-chip power supplies for computers, 2) kilowatt scale package integrated power converters by enabling applications such as low-cost, efficient inverters for grid-tied photovoltaics and variable speed motors, and 3) lightweight, solid-state, medium voltage energy conversion for high power applications such as solid-state electrical substations and wind turbine generators.  Deploying advanced power electronics could provide as much as a 25-30 percent reduction in electricity consumption – or 12 percent of total U.S. energy consumption.  Innovations in power electronics could lead to significant reduction in costs, which would promote U.S. businesses through technological leadership.
3. Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices (BEET-IT).  ARPA-E seeks to develop energy efficient cooling technologies and air conditioners (AC) for buildings to save energy and reduce GHG emissions from: (a) primary energy consumption due to space cooling and (b) refrigerants used in vapor compression systems.  ARPA-E seeks innovative research and development approaches to increase energy efficiency and reduce GHG emissions due to cooling of buildings in the following areas: 1) cooling systems that use refrigerants with low global warming potential; 2) energy efficient air conditioning (AC) systems for warm and humid climates with an increased coefficient of performance (COP); and 3) vapor compression AC systems for hot climates for re-circulating air loads with an increased COP.  The unique challenge for the U.S. market is to develop technologies that can be retrofitted into current cooling systems.  For developing economies, there is a large market for new cooling technologies.  The development of these technologies will reduce GHG emissions and significantly increase U.S. technological lead in rapidly emerging clean energy industries.

ARPA-E’s first solicitation, announced in early 2009, was highly competitive and resulted in funding 37 projects aimed at transformational innovations in energy storage, biofuels, carbon capture, renewable power, building efficiency, vehicles, and other areas.  ARPA-E’s second solicitation announced in December, 2009 – which has yeilded nearly 500 concept papers – focused specifically on three areas of technology representing new approaches for biofuels, carbon capture, and batteries for electric vehicles.

New Webvideo Released

In conjunction with the summit, the Department also released a new video showcasing a project funded under ARPA-E’s first round of funding grants.  Sun Catalytix is developing a unique technology that mimics photosynthesis to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, which can be used for fuel.

www.energy.gov

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