ARPA-E: The First Seven Years A Sampling of Project Outcomes Dear Colleagues, In 2007, the formation of the Advanced Research Project Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) within the Department of Energy was a key recommendation of the “Rising Above the Gathering Storm Report.” The formation of the agency was quickly authorized, and ARPA-E began operations upon initial funding at the end of 2009. Now, after seven years of funding transformative R&D activities, ARPA-E has a portfolio of present and alumni project teams that are creating impact by moving their technologies into commercial applications, or significantly advancing the technical understanding in transformative areas of energy science and engineering. There are many possible statistical measures of the success of the teams supported by ARPA-E. For instance, we can report that since 2009 ARPA-E has provided funding of approximately $1.3 billion through 30 focused programs and three open funding solicitations to more than 475 projects. Of those, 206 are now alumni projects. ARPA-E’s project teams cumulatively have published 1,104 peer reviewed technical papers that have been cited 13,518 times, and have been awarded 101 patents. Many teams have successfully leveraged ARPA-E’s investment: 36 have started new companies, 60 have continued their technology development with other government support, and 45 have cumulatively raised $1.25 billion in publically reported funding from the private sector to bring their technologies into commercial applications. Such statistics demonstrate purposeful activity. However, the excitement and potential of these teams’ work can only be truly communicated by understanding the challenges they tackled, and what they achieved. This booklet provides a look at selected examples of these achievements. The examples span alumni teams to teams that are just nearing the end of their ARPA-E project contract, with outcomes ranging from new innovations that will bear fruit in the future to innovations that are moving into the energy sector as products today. We expect that this will be the first of many over-views of project outcomes, and their continuing development after ARPA-E support. Please distribute this to your colleagues as appropriate – we hope to encourage innovative scientists and engineers to continue to engage us with their new ideas, and to consider joining us as Program Directors, Fellows, or Commercialization Advisors. Sincerely, Ellen D. Williams Director of ARPA-E May 17, 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2010-2016 Focused Programs ..................................................................................................... 3 Descriptions of ARPA-E’s Programs ............................................................................................ 4 Grid-Scale Batteries ....................................................................................................................... 8 Fluidic (GRIDS) – Enhanced Metal-Air Energy Storage System with Advanced Grid-Interoperable Power Electronics Enabling Scalability and Ultra-Low Cost ...................................................................................................................... 9 CUNY (GRIDS) – Low-Cost Grid-Scale Electrical Storage Using a Flow-Assisted Rechargeable Zinc-Manganese Dioxide Battery ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Harvard Flow Battery (OPEN 2012) – Small Organic Molecule Based Flow Battery ........................................................ 14 24M (BEEST) – Semi-Solid Rechargeable Power Sources: Flexible, High Performance Storage at Ultralow Cost .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 16 Energy Storage Systems (ESS) (GRIDS SBIR) – 25kW 200kWh Energy Storage System based on All-iron Hybrid Flow Battery .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 19 Primus (GRIDS) – Low-Cost, High Performance Flow Cells ........................................................................................................ 21 UTRC (GRIDS) – Transformative Electromechanical Flow Storage System .......................................................................... 24 Alveo (OPEN 2012) - Open Framework Electrode Batteries for Cost-Effective Stationary Storage .......................... 26 Transportation ............................................................................................................................ 29 Ford (AMPED) – High Precision Life Testing of Automotive Batteries and Grid Storage Batteries ........................... 30 PARC (AMPED) – Smart Embedded Network of Sensors with Optical Readout ............................................................... 32 Sila (SBIR) – Doubling the Energy Density Anodes of Lithium-ion Batteries for Transportation................................ 35 FastCap (OPEN 2009) – Open Low-Cost, High Energy and Power Density, Nanotube-Enhanced Ultracapacitors ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 37 REL (MOVE) – Fully and Intricately Conformable, Single-Piece, Mass-Manufacturable High-Pressure Gas Storage Tanks .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 39 Onboard Dynamics (MOVE) – Vehicle-integrated Natural Gas Compressor ...................................................................... 41 Plant Sensory Systems (OPEN 2012) – Development of High-Output, Low-Input Energy Beets ............................... 43 University of Florida (PETRO) – Producing Terpene Biofuels in Pine Trees ......................................................................... 46 Grid Operations .......................................................................................................................... 49 Smart Wires (GENI) – Distributed Power Flow Control Using Smart Wires for Energy Routing ................................. 50 Varentec (GENI) – Compact Dynamic Phase Angle Regulators for Transmission Power Routing ............................. 52 Boston University (GENI) – Transmission Topology Control for Infrastructure Resilience to the Integration of Renewable Generation ............................................................................................................................................................................. 55 Autogrid (GENI) – Highly Dispatchable and Distributed Demand Response for the Integration of Distributed Generation ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 58 1 Power Electronics ....................................................................................................................... 62 APEI (ADEPT) – Low-Cost, Highly-Integrated Silicon Carbide (SiC) Multichip Power Modules (MCPMs) for Efficient Electric Vehicle Chargers ........................................................................................................................................................ 63 Transphorm (ADEPT) – High Performance GaN HEMT Modules for Agile Power Electronics ..................................... 66 Cambridge Electronics/MIT (ADEPT) – Advanced Technologies for Integrated Power Electronics........................... 69 Solarbridge Technologies (Solar ADEPT) – Scalable Submodule Power Conversion Methods for Power Density, Efficiency, Performance, and Protection Leaps in Utility-scale Photovoltaics .................................................................... 72 Monolith Semiconductors (SWITCHES) – Advanced Manufacturing and Performance Enhancements for Reduced-cost Silicon Carbide MOSFETs ........................................................................................................................................... 76 Soraa (OPEN 2009) – Ammonothermal Bulk GaN Crystal Growth ......................................................................................... 79 Energy Efficiency and Clean Power – Direct and Enabling Technologies ............................ 82 Makani (OPEN 2009) – Airborne Wind Turbine .............................................................................................................................. 83 1366 (OPEN 2009) – Direct Wafer: Enabling Terawatt Photovoltaics .................................................................................... 85 Foro (OPEN 2009) – Low-contact Drilling Technology to Enable Economical EGS Wells ............................................. 88 Brookhaven/AMSC & University of Houston/SuperPower (REACT) – Superconducting Wires for Direct-Drive Wind Generators ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 92 Stanford Radiative Cooling (OPEN 2012) – Photonic Structures for High-Efficiency Daytime Radiative Cooling