US Government seed investments in energy technology are working....

Today's post: Wednesday, 2-9-2010

We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 3 years from now.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.

Today’s post:

US Government seed investments in energy technology are working....

Last week the San Jose Mercury News had this story:

“Cleantech companies off to a good start By Dana Hull dhull@mercurynews.com “

Here is her main point:

“Six cleantech companies that received a total of $23.6 million in seed funding from the Department of Energy's highly regarded ARPA-E program have, a year later, attracted more than $100 million in private capital investment.”

She noted that this announcement highlighted ARPA-E's success in making early and strategic investments in potentially game-changing clean-energy technologies.

She then quotes Energy Secretary Steven Chu:

"This amount of private capital support indicates that the business community is hungry to invest in truly innovative solutions to the country's energy challenges."

& "The goal of the ARPA-E program is to swing for the fences, to focus on truly transformative energy research, and that's exactly what we are seeing."

She then added: “Modeled after DARPA, the Defense Department program credited with helping to create the Internet, the stealth fighter plane and the M16 assault rifle, ARPA-E, or Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, was first funded in 2009 to provide money for "pie in the sky" and "moonshot" clean-energy technologies that venture capitalists typically avoid. Its competitive grants are relatively small, averaging about $3 million.

Envia Systems, a Newark startup that received $4 million from ARPA-E in December 2009 to develop advanced lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, announced last week that it had raised an additional $17 million in venture capital from General Motors Ventures, Bay Partners, Redpoint and Pangaea Ventures.

"ARPA-E stepped into the chasm and made an investment when VCs could not," Envia CEO Atul Kapadia said Wednesday.

ARPA-E has just over 20 employees, but many regularly travel to meet with grantees. Kapadia said ARPA-E performs a level of technological diligence beyond that of most venture capital firms.

"The guys at ARPA-E are incredibly smart, and they go head to head with our scientists," Kapadia said.

Arun Majumdar left his job at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in October 2009 to direct ARPA-E and has recruited high-caliber talent to work with him. He notes that several ARPA-E grantees beyond the six highlighted also have gone on to raise money from the private sector.

"It's good to see that VC investment has been unleashed," Majumdar said. "We're really looking for ideas that are game-changing and will make today's technology obsolete."

The second annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, designed to showcase ARPA-E grantees as well as finalists, will be Feb. 28-March 2 in Washington. Several cleantech leaders from Silicon Valley, including Laura Ipsen of Cisco Systems, Will Coleman of Mohr Davidow Ventures and Codexis CEO Alan Shaw, are among those scheduled to speak.”

You can contact Dana Hull at 408-920-2706. O r email her at dhull@mercurynews.com .

She often writes stories about clean energy and the venture firms and companies in the field that for the local newspaper that is one of the two local papers read in the Silicon Valley. (David Baker writes similar stories for the San Francisco Chronicle.)

And, looking up her article online at the Mercury News I also found this.:

“Acorns to seedlings

Six cleantech startups that got new funding after getting seed money from the Department of Energy's ARPA-E program:


1. Envia Systems, Newark: Envia received $4 million from ARPA-E in December 2009 to develop lithium-ion batteries and raised an additional $17 million in venture capital funds.


2. 1366 Technologies, Lexington, Mass.: It's developing a new way to make silicon wafers for 20 percent of the current cost. The company received $4 million from ARPA-E and an additional $33.4 million from investors.


3. FloDesign, Wilbraham, Mass: The company, which is developing a new wind turbine, received $8.3 million from ARPA-E and raised an additional $27 million.


4. Sun Catalytix, Cambridge, Mass.: A startup spun out of MIT, it received $4 million from ARPA-E to develop technologies for combining sunlight and water to provide affordable solar energy. It has received an additional $9.5 million in venture capital.


5. General Compression, Newton, Mass.: The company is developing energy storage technologies for power grids and received an ARPA-E grant of $750,000. It then raised an additional $12 million in private funding.


6. 24M, Cambridge, Mass.: The startup was spun out of MIT and A123 Systems after getting $2.55 million from ARPA-E. It then raised $10 million in venture capital.”

Note that the majority of these companies are for allowing power grids or homes or businesses to take energy as electricity from solar or wind as it is available and to store it until it’s needed.

The more that becomes doable and cost effective and installed, the less fossil fuel or geothermal or nuclear power we will need and the more we can rely on wind and solar for our energy and electricity.

This is particularly true for wind as it varies even more than solar power does. And, in the United States, many states have abundant wind more than they have abundant sunny days. Iowa is a prime example. Of course some have both as Texas does.

These include: “1. Envia Systems” & “4. Sun Catalytix” & “5. General Compression” & “6. 24M” which has the real name of 24M Technologies I found out.:

“CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- 24M Technologies launched today as a new venture focused on commercializing next-generation energy storage systems based on technology out of A123 Systems, a developer and manufacturer of advanced Nanophosphate™ lithium ion batteries and systems, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).”

With wind, the more efficiently you can tap it when it is available, the less space you need for the turbines, if you can avoid killing birds with them, the quieter their operation, & the lower the cost to make, install and operate them, the more we can install and benefit from. That’s particularly true if we add the storage for the electricity generated so we can tap wind generated electricity on demand.

“3. FloDesign” is a contract engineering firm that applies aerospace technology to new and needed applications. Their wind turbine work has a website with contact phone numbers and the email: inquiries@fdwt.com . But it has no information listed as yet as to which of these aspects of improving wind generation for which they have found a solution or are working on one or more.