Last week U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz awarded $125 million in funding for 41 cutting-edge energy technology projects under the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program.  The announcement was made at an event showcasing the most promising startups working towards identifying technological solutions to energy challenges, and comes ahead of the U.N. climate change conference in Paris next week.   For more details regarding the DOE funding announcement, read on!

The new projects will be funded under the ARPA-E’s OPEN 2015 program, which employs open and focused solicitations to fund high-potential, high-impact technologies that exhibit technical and commercial potential but are too early for private-sector investment.  The projects seek to develop innovative solutions to energy challenges surrounding transportation, electricity generation and distribution, and delivery and energy efficiency.  U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz lauded the research and development projects, stating that, “The ARPA-E projects selected highlight how American ingenuity can spur innovation and generate a wide range of technology options to address our nation’s most pressing energy issues.”

A few examples of projects receiving funding include:

• INFINIUM, Inc.’s development of an energy-saving Magnesium recycling process that could reduce the weight of motor vehicles by 50%

• The Mackinac Technology Company’s development of a retrofit window insulation system that is transparent to visible light but reflects ultraviolent and thermal-infrared energies to reduce heat loss

• The University of Virginia’s design of a 50 MW segmented ultralight morphing wind turbine that could increase power tenfold compared to current turbines

• Proton Energy Systems’ development of a dual-purpose hydrogen-iron flow battery that can generate hydrogen for fueling fuel cell vehicles and store energy on the electric grid