DOE Invests $175 Million in Advanced Energy Projects Across 22 States

The U.S. Energy Department on Feb. 14 announced a $175 million funding for 68 research and development projects to foster the commercial deployment of advanced technologies including fusion energy, electric vehicles, and offshore wind. The initiative is led by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) wherein the OPEN 2021 program will prioritize funding to support innovative methods to achieve President Biden’s climate and clean energy goals.

The projects will emphasize novel technologies such as advancements in fuel cells for light- and heavy-duty vehicles, and technologies that produce fewer nuclear waste and decrease the fuel cost. Examples of OPEN 2021 project teams comprise:

• Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania): Develop efficient and low-cost fuel cells to propel electric vehicles (Award amount: $3,220,310)
• Hinetics (Champaign, Illinois): Transform aviation using ultra-compact 10 megawatts and above electric aircraft propulsion (Award amount: $5,761,467)
• Makai Ocean Engineering (Waimanalo, Hawaii): Develop innovative mooring and anchoring procedures for grid-scale floating wind turbines and hydrokinetic systems (Award amount: $849,951)
• Nokia Bell Labs (Murray Hill, New Jersey): Develop an efficient thermal energy architecture to reduce the energy usage required in cooling data servers (Award amount: $2,106,380)
• The University of Houston (Houston, Texas): Create a fast-charging transportation method using magnesium anodes, instead of lithium, to boost U.S. battery supply chain security (Award amount: $3,400,000)

The OPEN 2021 program is one the agency’s first funding for research and development prospects aimed at addressing climate change, announced in 2021. A total of more than $600 million has been awarded in the first four iterations – 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018 – to 225 projects to achieve advanced energy solutions including biofuels, solar, surface coatings, geothermal, and batteries.

ARPA-E has funded more than $2.93 billion in research and development since 2009, and its projects have attracted more than $7.6 billion of private sector funding for commercialization and job creation. Former ARPA-E awardees have achieved breakthroughs in developing solar, geothermal, battery, biofuel, and innovative surface coating technologies.