arpa-e posts, articles, and infographics

ARPA-E Director Majumdar: America Must “Out-Innovate” Foreign Competitors

October 14, 2011 by Silvio Marcacci
with 331 views

America pioneered many of the clean energy technologies now being used and manufactured around the world, but the edge we once held in clean tech is slipping to foreign competitors. Five years ago, scientists warned the U.S. was falling behind other nations and Congress responded by creating the Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA-E, to help fund the development of breakthrough energy technologies. Now, this initiative faces political headwinds and the U.S. risks any momentum gained since ARPA-E was founded. In this one-on-one interview, ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar discusses the energy challenges America faces from other countries and how the U.S. must “out-innovate” its competitors to spur new economic growth. [read more]

Tackling Denial About The Government's Role In Technology Innovation

September 23, 2011 by Alex Trembath
with 310 views

I recently engaged in a discussion with David Zetland, a former economics professor of mine, on the value of public investment in technology (NB: I feel authorized to re-publish his and my comments because they were originally published on his public blog). It's worth noting that his blog, Aguanomics, is spectacular and I enjoy reading... [read more]

Business Execs Call for Major Federal Investments in Energy Innovation

September 15, 2011 by Alex Trembath
with 254 views

The American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC)--composed of industry titans like Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, Bank of America Chairman Chad Holliday, and leading venture capitalist John Doerr--released a follow-up to their 2010 report "A Business Plan for America's Energy Future." The new report, "Catalyzing American Ingenuity:... [read more]

JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!

September 9, 2011 by A Siegel
with 706 views

We are less than two days out from President Barack Obama’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress and to the nation to outline proposals to help put Americans back to work. This speech could be a strident call for all-out measures to reinvigorate American employment, a more limited set of programs constructed and conceived within a... [read more]

Romney Endorses Federal Investment in Energy Innovation

September 7, 2011 by Teryn Norris
with 221 views

Today, the Romney campaign released his 59-point economic plan in a 160-page book (PDF here). While most of the energy policy section is spent debunking the “green jobs myth” and calling for expanded domestic fossil fuel production, it endorses a significant role for federal investment in alternative energy research and development (R... [read more]

Clean Energy Innovation Policy in Congress: The Battery Innovation Act of 2011

July 27, 2011 by Matthew Stepp
with 567 views

There’s no telling what the future of new U.S. clean energy policy holds. Congress and the White House are stalled in legislative gridlock over the debt ceiling. And clean energy programs are taking a beating in 2012 budget negotiations. But even so, some legislators are taking it upon themselves to offer cohesive clean... [read more]

ARPA-E Funding Still Falls Short

July 20, 2011 by Teryn Norris
with 356 views

On Friday, the House of Representatives voted on its final version of the 2012 Energy & Water Development Appropriations Bill. In terms of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) — the Department of Energy’s flagship energy innovation program — the good news is that advocates were able to boost the budget from $100... [read more]

Innovation through Coordination: DOE Should Create a BatteryShot Initiative

July 1, 2011 by Matthew Stepp
with 398 views

Earlier this year the Department of Energy (DOE) started the SunShot Initiative – an inter-organizational effort to speed up efforts to make solar energy cheaper than fossil fuels. The initiative harmonizes and refocuses the work and funds of numerous labs and programs working on solar technology.DOE should adopt a... [read more]

Recovery Act’s Impact on Energy Spending

June 21, 2011 by Sam Wurzelmann
with 245 views

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Pub.L. 111-5, Recovery Act, ARRA) is the economic stimulus package passed by Congress on February 13, 2009, and signed by President Obama four days later. As of February 2011, the package was expected to total $821 billion in costs through 2019 delivered through a combination of federal... [read more]

An Anti-Innovation Strategy: The Heritage Foundations Deficit Reduction and Energy Proposal

April 27, 2011 by Matthew Stepp
with 511 views

The full fact sheet and the information contained in this post was produced by ITIF along with the Americans for Energy Leadership and the Breakthrough Institute. The full report titled Counterpoint: The Heritage Foundation Backgrounder can be found and downloaded here. Last week the Heritage Foundation released a policy "... [read more]

DOE Announces $170 Million Available to Fund Advance Solar Energy Technologiy

April 10, 2011 by Mike Gregory
with 88 views

As part of the Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced nearly $170 million in available funding over three years to support a range of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology areas. The SunShot Initiative aims to reduce the total cost of solar energy systems by about 75 percent - to roughly $1... [read more]

Charlie Sheen and the Energy Reality Gap

March 7, 2011 by Christine Hertzog
with 712 views

The political events in the Middle East and North Africa are raising global oil prices and causing economies to wobble. The easy and inexpensively extracted oil has been exploited, and what sources remain, like tar sands, consume ever more energy, water, and money for extraction. Oil, as one of the primary fossil fuels in our... [read more]

The Fierce Urgency of Now: Notes from the ARPA-E Summit

March 3, 2011 by Breakthrough Institute
with 770 views

There are times when the nation’s political leadership in Washington is perfectly in sync with the realities of the day, and there are times when much of that leadership is out to lunch. Exhibit A: the current energy debate. Even as global demand and instability threatens to challenge affordable supply, and as overseas states are... [read more]

Thinking About Alternatives for Financing New Energy Technology

February 24, 2011 by James Greenberger
with 757 views

We will see over the next week how much of a political football ARPA-E and similar energy research programs have become. In the meantime, let’s root for the optimists. But we must also start thinking about alternatives. ARPA-E is a great idea and a good program. But this week’s lesson should be that we have to keep thinking about new ways to fund critical advanced energy research. Building the electric vehicles that ultimately replace petroleum-fueled cars will require as much creativity by policy and financial experts as by experts in battery and materials sciences. [read more]

ARPA-E: An Investment in America

February 10, 2011 by Daniel Goldfarb
with 661 views

ARPA-E, the DOE's high risk, high reward R&D program, has been in the spotlight the past two weeks in light of recent successes and budget talks. The disparate news about the agency illuminates the Federal Government's broken approach to innovation. Just last week, the New York Times reported on the success of ARA-E funded programs... [read more]