ARPA-E Announces $43 Million for Transformational Energy Storage Projects to Advance Electric Vehicle and Grid Technologies

Press release from the U.S. Dept. of Energy:

ARPA-E Announces $43 Million for Transformational Energy Storage Projects to Advance Electric Vehicle and Grid Technologies

August 2, 2012 - 10:34am

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WASHINGTON – The Department of Energy today announced that 19 transformative new projects will receive a total of $43 million in funding from the Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to leverage the nation’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to develop breakthrough energy storage technologies and support promising small businesses. These projects are supported through two new ARPA-E programs -- Advanced Management and Protection of Energy Storage Devices (AMPED) and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) – and will focus on innovations in battery management and storage to advance electric vehicle technologies, help improve the efficiency and reliability of the electrical grid and provide important energy security benefits to America’s armed forces.

“This latest round of ARPA-E projects seek to address the remaining challenges in energy storage technologies, which could revolutionize the way Americans store and use energy in electric vehicles, the grid and beyond, while also potentially improving the access to energy for the U.S. military at forward operating bases in remote areas,” said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. “These cutting-edge projects could transform our energy infrastructure, dramatically reduce our reliance on imported oil and increase American energy security.”

Twelve research projects are receiving $30 million in funding under the AMPED program, which aims to develop advanced sensing and control technologies that could dramatically improve and provide new innovations in safety, performance, and lifetime for grid-scale and vehicle batteries. Unlike other Department of Energy efforts to push the frontiers of battery chemistry, AMPED is focused on maximizing the potential of existing battery chemistries. These innovations will help reduce costs and improve the performance of next generation storage technologies, which could be applied in both plug-in electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. For example, Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, will develop an optical sensor to monitor the internal environment of a lithium-ion battery in real-time. 

ARPA-E is also announcing a total of $13 million for seven projects to enterprising small businesses to pursue cutting-edge energy storage developments for stationary power and electric vehicles.  These projects will develop new innovative battery chemistries and battery designs, continuing ARPA-E’s funding for storage technologies.  These awards are part of the larger Department-wide Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. For example, Energy Storage Systems, Inc., in Portland, Oregon, will construct a flow battery for grid scale storage using an advanced cell design and electrolyte materials composed of low cost iron.  The flow battery will have a target storage cost of less than $100/kWh, which could enable deployment of renewable energy technologies throughout the grid.

Information on all of the new AMPED and SBIR projects announced today is available HERE.


ARPA-E’s Principal Deputy Director Eric Toone announced the selected projects at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation’s event, the “New Age of Discovery: Government’s Role in Transformative Innovation,” in Washington, DC, where he spoke alongside former ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar.  

ARPA-E was launched in 2009 to seek out transformational, breakthrough technologies that are too risky for private-sector investment but have the potential to translate science into quantum leaps in energy technology, form the foundation for entirely new industries, and have large commercial impacts. Prior to today’s announcement, ARPA-E has attracted over 5,000 applications from research teams, which have resulted in approximately 180 groundbreaking projects worth nearly $500 million.  More information on the program is available at www.arpa-e.energy.gov. 

News Release from DOE: ARPA-E

ARPA-E Issues Open Call for Transformational Energy Technologies

March 2, 2012 - 2:31pm

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) issued a $150 million funding opportunity open to all transformational energy technologies to support the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above approach to solving our nation’s most pressing energy challenges. This Open Funding Opportunity Announcement is a call to our country’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to propose early-stage research projects that would not otherwise be able to attract private investment, but could lead to breakthrough energy technologies. This is the second open funding opportunity released under ARPA-E.  The first was in 2009.

“Today we are calling on our nation’s best and brightest to catalyze energy breakthroughs in all areas imaginable through this Open Funding Opportunity Announcement, which illustrates the true purpose of ARPA-E,” said Director Majumdar.  “Innovation is our nation’s sweet spot, and it is critically important that we look at every possible energy solution in order to ensure America’s future prosperity and security.”

This Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) joins ARPA-E’s other recently issued FOA – Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy (MOVE) – which will make $30 million available to find ways to harness our abundant supplies of domestic natural gas for vehicles and was announced by President Obama last week at the University of Miami.

More details on all of ARPA-E’s Funding Opportunities and Requests For Information are available HERE. Individual awards under the Open FOA will range between $250,000 and $10 million.

President Obama launched the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) in 2009 to seek out transformational, breakthrough technologies that are too risky for private sector investment but have the potential to translate science into quantum leaps in energy technology, form the  foundation for entirely new industries, and in the future have large commercial impact.

Including its most recent round of selections, ARPA-E has funded a total of more than 180 projects, for $521.7 million in awards across 12 program areas. Demonstrating the success ARPA-E has already seen, the Agency announced last year that eleven of its projects that received $40 million from ARPA-E for innovative research, were able to use this funding to demonstrate results, which allowed these teams to secure more than $200 million in outside private capital investment.

ARPA-E’s third annual Energy Innovation Summit featured 107 speakers, including: President Bill Clinton; Microsoft Founder and Chairman, Bill Gates; Xerox CEO, Ursula Burns; FedEx CEO, Fred Smith; BDT Capital Chairman, Lee Scott; Deputy Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter; MIT President, Susan Hockfield; U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu; and ARPA-E Director, Arun Majumdar.  The Summit attracted 2,440 attendees from 49 states and 26 countries and featured a Technology Showcase displaying over 240 breakthrough energy developments from ARPA-E’s awardees, finalists and other teams.

Energy Innovation Summit

Business, Government and Tech Leaders Give the Full Perspective

February 24, 2012 

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu speaking at the 2011 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. | Energy Department file photo.

Ben Dotson

Special Assistant for Digital Reform, Office of Public Affairs

• Check out the full conference program for more on the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.

When the third annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit convenes in Washington, DC, next week, key innovators from across the country and around the world will meet to share ideas for solving our greatest energy challenges.

While recent ARPA-E award winners and finalists will be on display at the Technology Showcase, the keynote speakers will offer a personal perspective on innovation in the energy sector.

One of the highlights of the conference will be a "fireside chat" between Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft has led the computer industry with investments in research and development each year. Check Energy.gov after the Summit for a video of the conversation that you can watch, share, and offer your perspective on.

Former President Bill Clinton will deliver remarks on Wednesday. As the 42nd President of the United States, President Clinton oversaw the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history and the creation of more than 22 million jobs. 

We'll also hear from Dr. Arun Majumdar, Director of ARPA-E, and Dr. Susan Hockfield, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-chair of the President's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership.

From the private sector, we will be joined by Ursula M. Burns, Chairman and CEO of the Xerox Corporation; Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of the FedEx Corporation; and Lee Scott, chairman of BDT Capital and former CEO of Walmart. Each of these individuals has been an innovative leader in their field and will offer their own perspectives on what it takes for innovators and entrepreneurs to succeed in the clean energy economy.

The Summit will also highlight the winning startup companies that competed in DOE’s “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge," which leverages cutting-edge technologies from the Energy Department’s national laboratories to support new startup companies across the country. The Secretary will present the winners with awards on Monday during the luncheon, and you can learn more about their innovations at their booth in the Technology Showcase.

You can find more information on the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit and the full program for the three-day conference here. 

Post from Dept. of Energy Blog

Transphorm Takes Energy Efficiency to a New Level

February 24, 2012 

Transphorm's gallium nitride semiconductors could be used to make operating photovoltaic panels, like these on the roof of the Research Support Facility, motor drives and transistors more energy efficient. | Photo courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Michael Hess

New Media Specialist, Office of Public Affairs

What are the key facts?

• Transphorm’s transistors are made of Gallium nitride (GaN), which decreases the electricity lost by 90 percent.
• Gallium nitride is more expensive to produce than silicon, but the costs are re-cooped in saved energy costs.

When electricity travels from your home’s power outlet through a cord and into a device, part of the charge is lost along the way.

To say it’s lost means the conductive materials in the device resist the flow of electricity, so even though the computer, air conditioner or toaster still turns on, not all the power that left the outlet makes the journey to its destination. The place it still shows up is on residential and commercial energy bills nationwide to the tune of $40 billion annually, or 10 percent of energy consumed in the United States.

Transphorm, a startup developing technology partially funded by ARPA-E, focuses on improving the ease at which electricity moves through transistors, an electrical component that controls the electrical energy that flows around an electrical circuit. Most transistors are made of silicon, which lose more energy at high speeds and voltage levels, but are also cost effective. Transphorm’s transistors are developed from a new material, which decreases the electricity lost by 90 percent.

Gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors could be used to make cost-effective, high-performance power converters for electric motor drives and components of solar panels and electric vehicles. As electricity moves through this material, there’s less ‘drag,’ so even though the material is more expensive to produce than silicon, the costs are recouped in saved energy costs.

Such materials, when used in electric motors for machinery or other devices with electric motors, reduce American demand for energy and, in part, ensure our national energy security.

The project is one of 14 that comprise ARPA-E’s Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology (ADEPT) program. Transphorm was initially awarded $2.95 million from ARPA-E’s first round of funding in 2010. Since then, the organization has raised $63 million in capital to continue moving electric components to a sustainable and energy efficient energy distribution.  

To learn more about Transphorm technology and other innovative companies that are changing the way we produce and use energy, join us at the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit  held February 27-29 at Washington DC’s National Harbor.

Biofuels News from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Fill 'Er Up With Tobacco? Berkeley Lab-Led Team Explores New Path to Biofuels

ARPA-E funded project aims to produce fuel molecules in plant leaves

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

Dan Krotz   dakrotz@lbl.gov

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Feature

It'll take some doing, but Berkeley Lab's Christer Jansson and others hope to create a new recipe for biofuels. The idea is to take hydrocarbon-synthesizing genes from cyanobacteria (in the flask) and introduce them into tobacco plants. Jansson will discuss the project at the Feb. 27-29 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.

Mention biofuels and most people think of corn ethanol. Some may think of advanced biofuels from switchgrass or miscanthus. But tobacco? Not likely.

That could change. A team of scientists led by a researcher from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is exploring a way to produce gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from the iconic plant of the South.

Their goal is to engineer tobacco plants that use energy from sunlight to produce fuel molecules directly in their leaves. The leaves would then be crushed, and the fuel extracted and separated. The scientists estimate that about 1000 acres of tobacco could yield more than one million gallons of fuel.

Why tobacco? It’s grown in large tracts throughout the U.S and in more than 100 countries. It generates multiple harvests per year, its large leaves could store a lot of fuel, and it’s amenable to genetic engineering.

But before you fill up with gas squeezed from tobacco, the scientists must first get through a long checklist of pioneering research. Success could give the nation a new source of transportation fuel.

If this sounds promising—albeit a bit of a long shot—that’s by design. The $4.9 million project is funded by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which focuses on “high risk, high payoff concepts—technologies promising genuine transformation in the ways we generate, store and utilize energy.”

The project is led by Christer Jansson, a plant biochemist with Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division. He’ll discuss the project at the 3rd Annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, to be held February 27-29 near Washington, D.C.

Can tobacco leaves hold fuel molecules? An ARPA-E funded project at Berkeley Lab is taking on the challenge.

Jansson will be joined at the summit by other Berkeley Lab scientists who’re pursuing ARPA-E projects, all potential game-changers. These include a way to quickly discover materials that capture CO₂ from power plant emissions, an innovative method to produce biofuel from microbes, and the development of a low-cost flow battery for the grid that could boost the adoption of renewables.
In the tobacco-to-fuels project, Jansson and his collaborators want to create a shortcut in the way in which solar energy is converted to biofuel. Today, one approach to advanced biofuel production requires deconstructing biomass and then using microbes to ferment the resulting sugars into fuel. In contrast, the team hopes to create a plant that grabs CO₂ from the air and converts the carbon into a fuel that’s almost ready for the tank.
“We want to bypass downstream processes like fermentation and produce fuels directly in the crop,” says Jansson. “After the biomass is crushed, we could extract the hydrocarbon molecules, and crack them into shorter molecules, creating gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.”
To get there, the scientists will work to create tobacco plants that are optimized to take in CO₂, harvest sunlight, and produce hydrocarbon molecules.
For the latter, Jansson will start with cyanobacteria genes that encode for enzymes which produce alkane, a type of hydrocarbon. He’ll then make synthetic versions of these genes that are suited for expression in tobacco. In another approach, Tasios Melis, a UC Berkeley biologist, will conduct a similar exercise with green algae genes that produce isoprenoids, another type of hydrocarbon.

These genes will be introduced into tobacco plants grown by UC Berkeley scientist Peggy Lemaux. Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of the leaves by UC Berkeley chemist David Wemmer will enable the scientists to spot any carbon bottlenecks in the plant and refine their metabolic engineering. In addition, Cheryl Kerfeld, a scientist at DOE’s Joint Genome Institute, will search the genomes of hundreds of cyanobacteria species for other alkane-producing genes that could also prove useful.

The scientists also want to get as much carbon into the tobacco plant as possible to maximize hydrocarbon production. Ordinary tobacco “fills up” with CO₂ very quickly. To increase the plant’s carbon uptake, the team will again turn to cyanobacteria, which are very efficient at grabbing carbonate from the surrounding water and transporting it into the cell. Jansson hopes to insert cyanobacteria genes that facilitate this carbon transport into the chloroplasts of tobacco plants.

Melis and UC Berkeley scientist Kris Niyogi will also work to enhance tobacco’s use of light during photosynthesis. Melis will use a technique he developed that enables the manipulation of a plant’s light-harvesting mechanisms.

The team hopes to grow their first plant in about 18 months. Their ultimate goal is a plant in which between 20 and 30 percent of its dry weight is hydrocarbon. Promising plants will be grown in Kentucky in a pilot test overseen by the Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center, whose scientists will explore ways to optimize the plants’ growth and harvest conditions.

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News Release from the DOE - Nat Gas & Biofuels Funding

President Obama Announces Funding for Breakthroughs in Natural Gas and Biofuels as Alternative Fuels for Vehicles

February 23, 2012 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Obama announced new funding to catalyze breakthrough technologies for two key alternative fuels – natural gas and biofuels – as part of his all-of-the-above energy strategy to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and provide American families new choices for vehicles that do not rely on conventional gasoline.   Through its Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), the Energy Department will make $30 million available for a new research competition in the coming months that will engage our country’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to find ways to harness our abundant supplies of domestic natural gas for vehicles. The Department of Energy will also make $14 million available to support research and development into biofuels from algae.  These programs will spur American innovation and encourage scientific breakthroughs that will help diversify the nation’s energy portfolio, grow American companies, and develop alternative vehicle technologies that do not rely on oil.

President Obama announced the programs during a speech at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida, where he toured the school’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC), an Energy Department program that teaches students how to become industrial energy efficiency experts as they help small- to mid-sized manufacturers cut energy costs.

“As President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address, in order to build a strong economy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we must invest in developing American energy sources like natural gas and biofuels,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “Through the new programs announced today, we can help revolutionize the way Americans fuel their cars, saving money for families and businesses while building new industries here in the United States.”

Funding Breakthroughs in Natural Gas Vehicles


ARPA-E’s $30 million funding announcement for natural gas breakthroughs build on President Obama’s call for a new era for American energy that benefits from the safe, responsible development of the near 100-year supply of American natural gas, which has the potential to support more than 600,000 U.S. jobs. Today’s natural gas vehicle technologies require tanks that can withstand high pressures, are cumbersome and either too large or too expensive to be suitable for passenger vehicles. ARPA-E’s projects under this new program, titled Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy - or “MOVE” - will focus on overcoming these barriers by developing innovative, low-cost natural gas storage technologies and methods to lower pressure in vehicle tanks that will help enable the widespread adoption of natural gas vehicles.

Specifically, ARPA-E seeks to fund projects that will develop lightweight tanks for cars that can run on natural gas and fit into modern passenger vehicles. This approach includes developing affordable natural gas compressors that can efficiently fuel a natural gas vehicle at home. ARPA-E also seeks to fund projects that will develop absorbing materials that are able to hold gas, similar to how a sponge holds water.  These materials could lower pressure in vehicle tanks that hold and release natural gas, making them safer and more  affordable for American consumers.

President Obama launched ARPA-E in 2009 to seek out transformational, breakthrough technologies that are too risky for private-sector investment but have the potential to translate science into quantum leaps in energy technology, form the foundation for entirely new industries, and have large commercial impacts. Demonstrating the success ARPA-E has already seen, the program announced last year that eleven of its projects secured more than $200 million in outside private capital investment after initial funding from its programs.  Today’s announcement begins ARPA-E’s fifth round of funding. To date, ARPA-E has hosted four rounds of competitions and attracted over 5,000 applications from research teams, which has resulted in 180 groundbreaking projects worth over $500 million. For more information and application requirements for the Funding Opportunity Announcement, please visit https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/.

Funding to Develop Homegrown Transportation Fuels from Algae

The Energy Department’s $14 million funding announcement to develop transportation fuels from algae builds on an Administration-wide commitment to biofuels research, development, and demonstration that includes support for the construction of commercial-scale, next-generation biorefineries. Part of the Department’s sustained investment in biofuels technologies focuses on unlocking the potential for homegrown transportation fuels from algae, which have the potential to replace up to 17 percent of the United States’ imported oil for transportation. In addition, algae feedstocks offer additional benefits, such as an ability to be grown in ponds near industrial facilities where algae can feed off the carbon emissions from power plants or digest nitrogen and phosphorous from municipal waste water.  The Department is currently supporting more than 30 algae-based biofuels projects, representing $85 million in total investments.

Through the new funding announcement, the Department will seek proposals from small businesses, universities, and national laboratories to modify existing facilities for long-term algae research and test new production processes that could lead to commercial biofuels made from algae. Specifically, the new projects will establish and operate research “test beds” for algal biofuels that can facilitate development, test new approaches to algae production, and discover innovative ways to minimize the water and nutrients needed to mass produce algae for commercial biofuels. These advanced research projects will aim to significantly improve the sustainability of algae-based biofuels and accelerate technological breakthroughs.  These awards represent the first phase in a total $30 million investment in algal biofuels in fiscal year 2012.

The competitively selected projects will receive up to $14.3 million in fiscal year 2012 funds, with an additional $6.7 million available in fiscal year 2014 funding, subject to Congressional appropriations, for projects that meet rigorous performance criteria. Applications are due on April 18, 2012. For more information and application requirements for the Funding Opportunity Announcement, please visit the Funding Opportunity Exchange website.

Electrofuels

From the blog of the U.S. Dept. of Energy:

Electrofuels: Tiny Organisms Making a Big Impact

February 16, 2012

Alexa McClanahan

Communications Support Contractor to ARPA-E

They say a picture is worth a thousand words — but what happens when what you want to look at is impossible to see?

That’s where the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s Electrofuels program comes in. The 13 projects that make up the program seek to develop renewable liquid fuels that use microorganisms to harness chemical or electrical energy to convert carbon dioxide into liquid fuels, without using petroleum or biomass. For example, scientists at Columbia University are using bacteria to optimize the conversion of carbon dioxide and ammonia into a liquid transportation fuel similar to gasoline.

If successful, the projects supported by ARPA-E could change the game – breaking our dependence on imported oil and powering our vehicles with homegrown fuels.

Check out the infographic above to see how tiny organisms are making a big impact, or see electrofuels projects in action at ARPA-E’s 2012 Energy Innovation Summit, held February 27-29 right outside Washington, D.C. For more information, visit http://energyinnovationsummit.com/

America's Next Top Energy Innovator, Round 2

News release from the U.S. Department of Energy:

Secretary Chu Announces Second Round of “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” on One Year Anniversary of the White House Startup America Initiative

January 31, 2012 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, on the one year anniversary of the Obama Administration’s Startup America Initiative, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) is kicking off a second year of “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator,” a program that allows startup companies to license groundbreaking technologies developed by DOE’s 17 national laboratories for $1,000 and build successful businesses. As part of this effort, the Department reduces both the cost and paperwork requirements for startup companies to obtain an option agreement to license some of the 15,000 patents and patent applications held by the national laboratories.

The White House Startup America Initiative is a multiagency effort across the Obama Administration to promote high-growth entrepreneurship by expanding access to capital, cutting red tape, and accelerating innovation through agency action.  Additional information on the program’s one year anniversary and new steps the Obama Administration is taking to support job-creating small businesses is available HERE.

“America's future competitiveness depends on our ability to innovate and advance American products and businesses,” said Energy Secretary Chu. “Through America’s Next Top Energy Innovator, we are allowing brilliant ideas to fully develop and giving startup companies the opportunity to bring inventions from our national laboratories to the market.”

Under the previous round of America’s Next Top Energy Innovator, thirty-six companies in total signed option agreements with the national laboratories.  An online contest for the top picks is currently underway, where Americans can vote online for the most innovative and promising technologies supported by the program by visiting www.energy.gov/topinnovator. The top startup companies– based on the public vote and an expert review – will be invited to be featured at the premier annual gathering of clean energy investors and innovators around the country, the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit at the end of February.

Under the next round of the “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” program:

1.      Wednesday, February 1, 2011, the Department will kick off the second round of the competition.  Entrepreneurs and start-ups must identify the technology of interest and submit a business plan to be considered for the program. Participants will have until December 10, 2012 to make their submission to the laboratory.
2.      Any of the 15,000 unlicensed patents and patent applications held by the national laboratories will be available for licensing by startup companies.
3.      From February 1 to December 10, the Department will reduce the total upfront cost of licensing DOE patents in a specific technology to a $1,000 upfront fee for portfolios of up to three patents from a single laboratory. This represents a savings of $10,000 to $50,000 on average in upfront fees.
4.      Other license terms, such as equity and royalties, will be negotiated on a case by case basis and will typically be due once the company grows and achieves commercial sales. These fees help support the Department's continuing research activities to develop new technologies.
5.      The Department has simplified the option and licensing process and has established a standard set of terms for start-ups, who generally lack the resources, time or expertise to negotiate individual licensing agreements.
6.      In early 2013, the Department will give Americans the chance to vote online for the most innovative and promising technologies supported by the program.

Learn more about DOE’s America’s Next Top Energy Innovator program HERE. Learn more about the Obama Administration’s Startup America initiative HERE.

EV Technology Accelerates in Colorado

From U.S. Dept. of Energy blog:

EV Technology Accelerates in Colorado

January 13, 2012 

  

Arun Majumdar speaks at Idaho National Lab (INL) during a visit to the site earlier this week. | Photo courtesy of INL.

April Saylor

New Media Specialist, Office of Public Affairs

What does this mean for me?

• One of 48 advanced battery and electric drive projects across the country funded by Recovery Act.
• U.S. will have increased capacity to produce electric-drive vehicles batteries from virtually zero in 2008 up to 500,000 per year in 2015.

While the North American International Auto Show began this week in Detroit, ARPA-E Director Arun Majumadar is visiting another town on the cutting edge of vehicle R&D – Longmont, Colorado, home of UQM Technologies.

Beginning with their first all-composite, battery-electric passenger vehicle in the 1970s, the company has been in the electrification business for 35 years, and is no stranger to the benefits of government-industry partnerships.

Over the years, both the Energy Department and the federal government at large have successfully collaborated with UQM – which has received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards from the Defense Department as far back as 1983 and received SBIR funding from Energy for eight different projects in electric motors and machines. In 2006, UQM received funding from EERE’s Vehicle Technologies Program via the FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership to design an advanced permanent magnet motor for use in electric drive vehicles.

In 2009, following the success of the FreedomCAR project, UQM was awarded $45 million in Recovery Act funding to support the development of two types of Electric Vehicle (EV) systems: a propulsion/generator system for battery electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid passenger vehicles, and power assist motor/generators for parallel hybrid trucks and buses. As a result of this funding, UQM was able to build the Longmont, CO facility that Dr. Majumdar is visiting today. This site alone has the capacity to produce systems for 120,000 electric drive vehicles a year.

In keeping with emerging EV technologies, last year the Vehicles Technology Program also awarded $3 million to UQM to develop a non-rare-earth permanent magnet motor architecture, which will enable the use of low energy magnet technology. Engineering teams at several national labs will work with UQM’s engineers to develop the technology, which will support more affordable and efficient EV technologies and eliminate the need to utilize rare earth metals in these advanced engines.

It’s partnerships like this that are powering the commercialization of emerging EV technology. In fact, UQM’s recent agreement with Electric Vehicles International (EVI) and UPS to produce systems for 100 all-electric delivery vans is not only a great business success, but will be the largest deployment of a zero-tailpipe delivery fleet in California. As a National Clean Fleets Partner, UPS is a leader in reducing oil use in their fleet, and estimates that the use of these vehicles will displace 126,000 gallons of fuel a year that would have been burned running diesel trucks.

Partnerships like these across the private and public sectors are the kind of investments that are helping America win the clean energy race. Including UQM, the Recovery Act provided $2.4 billion in funding to 48 advanced battery and electric drive projects across the country, funding 30 new manufacturing plants like the one Dr. Majumdar is visiting today. Because of these investments, the U.S. will have increased our capacity to produce electric-drive vehicles batteries from virtually zero in 2008 up to 500,000 per year in 2015.