The same GPS technology that guided smart bombs during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 is now in your smart phone and there are numerous additional examples of technology borne from US Defense Department innovators – Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – that exploded (pardon the pun) into mainstream commercial applications. Well, if it worked for defense projects, why not use the same model to halt the erosion of US science and technology prowess, while supporting cutting-edge, home-grown energy solution development?

That’s exactly what the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has been doing since its inception in 2009. “We’ve had over $900 million dollars fund over 362 projects,” ARPA-E’s Acting Director Dr. Cheryl Martin recently told Breaking Energy in an interview.

“The exciting thing for us is that we are seeing traction across the board with start-up companies, engagement from strategics, engagement with other parts of DOE and DOD to move things forward in a number of areas and we’ve had good traction with follow-up funding,” Martin said.

When asked about her favorite projects, Martin maternally replied that she loves all her children. But interestingly, power sector solutions currently appear to be the kinds of technology poised to gain solid commercial footing most rapidly. The agency is involved with several liquid transport fuel-related ideas, but scaling them up at volumes and costs competitive with existing petroleum-based fuels appears to be a longer-term prospect.

Read additional Breaking Energy coverage of ARPA-E here.

“You’re going to see power electronics starting to move forward or some of the software to route the grids. Storage flow batteries are going to be things you start to see traction on first. You probably have less capital and probably have more first markets. So in the case of a flow battery technology we’ve had one and I think some more are having a conversation about doing their demonstrations overseas in the cellular tower backup power markets,” explained Martin.

This gives the companies a chance to test their technology with real-world applications and straighten out their supply chains in smaller markets before entering larger ones. And in the case of energy storage for example, although likely to be huge, the market is still developing and how various storage technologies are valued is still being determined.

“Things like carbon capture and fuels are just longer cycle times naturally because you’ve got to do more scaling, but that’s where I think our partners are being useful. We are seeing traction competitively.”

One example is a partnership with a jet engine manufacturing company called ATK. They are “using alternating nozzle technology that gives you more thrust for engines. When they developed that they made sure they solidified out anything in the air because it would blow apart your engine. But that technology if you put it in a flue gas stream allows you to get your CO2 out of the flue gas without the use of chemicals. They did their funding with us and are now working to do their next stage scale up,” said Martin.

About half ARPA-E’s awardees are academics, about a third are small businesses and the remaining roughly 20% are larger companies and national labs.

An example of a successful partnership with a larger company is where the Arkansas Power Electronics Group is doing silicon-carbide chip development with Toyota to reduce the size of a hybrid car charger by a factor of 5, while making it 10 times more powerful by considerably improving the chip. And ARPA-E has projects with companies like Northrop Grumman that have not traditionally been players in the energy space, but saw opportunities to transition technology they developed into energy-related applications.

One cross-over project from the defense sector involves Primus Power – a flow battery company – that partnered with Raytheon at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego on a microgrid/storage installation that provides 72 hours of backup power and load balances some of the base’s buildings. The idea is to deploy this technology at forward operating bases to reduce high-risk fuel delivery and thus increase both physical and energy security.

Additional detail about that project can be found in this video:

What Would it Take to do this Without Subsidies?

There is a strong focus on the economic feasibility of projects from the outset and the agency maintains flexibility to shut down projects that are not demonstrating commercial viability. They set up a value metric that considers performance and cost, Martin told Breaking Energy.

“What would it take for this thing to be disruptive and unsubsidized?” This is the lens through which ARPA-E views new ideas and potential projects. The agency sets a goal they would like to see a technology reach in the future and then looks at any concept compelling enough in its application to suggest it can reach that goal, she said.

A $30 million dollar program could involve 12 to 15 projects. “We’ll take a lot of shots on goal,” said Martin. ARPA-E considers seemingly far-fetched ideas, examining them based on a set of milestones and metrics that if not met by a predetermined date will stop that particular approach.

“So we encourage people to give us the crazy and then say OK let’s parse the crazy into chunks…there’s a difference between taking a chance and just being hopeful,” said Martin.

Engagements

One approach to soliciting new ideas is something the agency calls “engagements,” where interested parties are given a workshop for a day to present a concept and answer a number of feasibility questions – Why this? Why now? Where does it go from here if it works? Promising solicitations are then put on the street. Finally, ARPA-E reviews concept papers and selects leading proposals from there.

Every 3 years ARPA-E also runs open solicitations. “Hey world we have $100 million dollars and give us your best shots,” is how Martin sums them up. The first time they did one it received around 40 proposals and the most recent open solicitation in 2012 generated 66 projects.

ARPA-E was in town last month for New York Energy Week, where they announced $33 million in funding for 13 new projects aimed at developing transformational fuel cell technologies for low-cost distributed power generation. Dr. Martin was involved in the Women in Power & Energy event and later that week she represented ARPA-E in a panel discussion at The North American Student Energy Summit held jointly at the United Nations and Columbia University.

ARPA-E has covered a lot of ground in their first 5 years and it will be interesting to watch the new technologies that continue emerging with assistance from this innovative funding and technical support initiative. And if you believe things like energy storage or carbon capture and sequestration will be technological game changers that grow into climate-friendly multi-billion dollar markets, it will be smart to watch ARPA-E’s “children” grow up.