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ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit upbeat, despite budget questions

BroadFundingAnnouncement_176.jpg The US Department of Energy kicked off its ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit on Monday with a day-long pre-conference workshop bringing together programme officials and the full suite of stakeholders, including university researchers, venture capitalists and upstart clean energy companies. Despite questions surrounding the budgetary battle on Capitol Hill, the first day was an upbeat affair that mixed pep talks and science seminars with music from the likes of the Dave Matthews Band.

Officials talked about how the fledgling Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy is going about its mission – which is to fund high-risk/high-return projects – and where it might go in the future. The agency has already created programmes in such areas as transportation fuels, batteries and carbon capture and sequestration, and department officials discussed possible ventures several new areas, including solar and smart-grid technologies as well as methods for converting natural gas into liquid fuels.

Prevailing optimism about programs and possibilities very nearly overshadowed the budgetary concerns, but the subject inevitably arose whenever anybody asked a question about what kind of funding opportunities come next. Congress will ultimately determine whether any new initiatives get off the ground this year – or indeed whether ARPA-E and other government agencies could be forced to shut down in the coming weeks.

The Obama administration requested $300 million for the current fiscal year, but House Republicans included just $50 million in a continuing resolution passed on 19 February. That’s enough to launch one new programme, but it might not be enough to maintain morale, says Eric Toone, deputy director for technology at ARPA-E and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Duke University. Employees joined the agency because they believed in the mission, not because they needed a job, Toone says. “Morale is still high, but if a budget passes and we’re in there for $50 million we’re going to start leaking people,” he says. “That would be hard to take.”


In the meantime, ARPA-E officials say they have enough money to monitor existing research programs through the current year. In all, the agency has funded 121 projects, some of which are now entering their second year and have already attracted investments from venture capitalists.

The agency dates back to the administration of George W. Bush and the 2007 America COMPETES Act, but ARPA-E received its first and only congressional appropriation – to the tune of $400 million – through the economic recovery act in 2009. Last month the Obama administration requested $550 million for 2012, a request that Congress has yet to take up.

The Energy Innovation Summit officially begins Tuesday morning, headlined by Energy Secretary Steven Chu and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The event runs through Wednesday.

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