ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit: Day One
The ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit (The Summit) is an annual conference and technology showcase that brings together experts from different technical disciplines and professional communities to think about America’s energy challenges in new and innovative ways. Now in its thirteenth year, the Summit offers a unique, three-day program aimed at moving transformational energy technologies out of the lab and into the market.
The summit is taking place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, National Harbor, Maryland.
Agenda: Day One | Day Two | Day Three
| 10:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. | Opening Remarks & Keynote Address | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10:15 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. | Fireside Chat
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| 10:50 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. | Fireside Chat
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| 11:15 a.m. – 11:35 a.m. | Keynote Address
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| 11:35 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. | Fireside Chat
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| 11:55 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. | Keynote Address
| Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
| 11:45 a.m. – 1:45 p.m. | Government Agency Networking Program (GANP)
| The Government Agency Networking Program (GANP) at the annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit provides an opportunity to meet with representatives from federal government agencies to discuss research interests, funding solicitations, grants, and other potential partnership opportunities.
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Fast Pitch: Batteries & Storage
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| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Lab to Impact: Maximizing Success with Technology Licensing Offices
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In this panel, we will delve into best practices for how and when to engage with Technology Licensing Offices, and what common pitfalls to avoid. We will hear from a diversity of stakeholders representing an inventor, investor, lawyer, and licensing office, who will share their successes and failures – drawing from decades of experience. Whether you are looking to spin out a startup or license a technology, this panel will help provide practical takeaways on how to maximize success and impact.
| 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. | Prospects for Inertial Fusion Energy Given the Recent Achievement of Ignition at the National Ignition Facility
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This panel will address the following questions about the prospects for inertial fusion energy (IFE): Can lasers be made efficient enough to enable a commercial IFE power plant? Can targets be made inexpensively and at scale? Are the physics challenges going from indirect drive (as is done on the National Ignition Facility) to direct drive (or another concept) tractable?
| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Fast Pitch: Industrial Processes
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| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Decarbonizing the “Bus Stop” of the Future: Innovations in Urban Transportation
| As cities strive to reduce carbon emissions and improve urban transportation, defining the “bus stop” of the future, and with it, the necessary technology innovations and infrastructure, is becoming increasingly important. In high population density areas, where large metro systems are not available, the energy implications of the shift towards electrified and on-demand mobility options must be considered. Ride-hailing services currently optimize for pick-up proximity, but what does the equivalent approach for passenger transit look like in these situations and what role does energy efficiency need to play when the most convenient option is continued reliance on privately owned, personally driven cars? How does the increase in car sales during the pandemic further factor into future solutions? This thought-provoking panel will explore the disruptive innovations and flexible options that can address the energy consumption of future modes of urban transportation and tackle the question of how to ensure equity for all.
| 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. | Beyond VC: Alternative Funding Sources for Startups
| Panelists from a range of non-dilutive (federal, state and non-profit) and “less-dilutive” (venture debt, in various structures) funding sources will discuss how energy- and climate-tech startups can navigate non-traditional funding sources to best support their companies’ growth plans.
| 5:00 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. | Tech Demo: Advanced Operation & Maintenance Techniques implemented in the Xe-100 Plant Digital Twin to reduce Fixed O&M Cost
| X-energy is an Advanced Reactor design company and an awardee of the ARPA-E GEMINA Program. The main objective of the GEMINA Program is to demonstrate how Digital Twins can reduce Fixed Operations & Maintenance (O&M) costs for the Advanced Reactors (i.e. the Xe-100). X-energy’s 3D Immersive Digital Twin Experience demonstrates the integration between the physics-based Xe-100 Simulator and a 3D virtual representation of the Xe-100 plant. Users can walk through and interact with the Virtual Reality (VR) model as if it were the real Xe-100 plant. During the design phases of the Xe-100, the 3D model is being used for iterative design reviews to incorporate feedback, optimize layouts, and inform future work. During the operation phase of the Xe-100, the 3D model will be used for training of plant staff, particularly Maintenance crews. Combined with X-DATA™, X-energy’s Digital Twin product, the 3D Immersive Environment supports the implementation of “Central Maintenance” concepts that will ultimately lead to a safer, more reliable, and more economic nuclear plant for the 21st century.
| 5:45 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | Tech Demo: Low-cost non-destructive plant root phenotyping
| Tomographic Electrical Rhizosphere Imager (TERI) is a technology aiming to make plant root phenotyping easier and faster. Root digging, washing, photographing, counting, and analysis have been the standard practice for field scale root phenotyping for a very long time. This is a process that is low throughput and very time and labor consuming. TERI aims to disrupt this practice to significantly accelerate plant root phenotyping at field scales to help accelerate the development of new root-superior plant varieties that are more resource efficient and climate resilient. TERI technology is based on the dialectic properties and behavior of plant root systems and can work under almost any type of soil, moisture, and plant species conditions. The lightweight of the hardware system and the user-friendly software interface make the system very easy to use by anyone without the technical background.
| 6:30 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. | Tech Demo: Basin-SCAN: Basin Scale Continuous oil and gas emissions mitigAtion Network
| Founded in 2018 through the ARPA-E MONITOR program, LongPath Technologies is the “5G” of methane measurement and abatement, providing a proven and standardized approach across the value chain. Our specialized laser systems detect, locate and quantify site-level emissions across 20+ square mile regions with a single laser tower, and the continuous emissions monitoring networks provide actionable real-time alerts and quantitative emission rates to oil and gas operators. LongPath’s innovative regional-scale solution provides continuous, reliable data at the lowest cost to the customer.
| 7:15 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Tech Demo: Pilot Production for Commercial Sampling of Rare-Earth-Free Iron Nitride Permanent Magnets
| Niron Magnetics has developed the first powerful permanent magnets free of rare earths and other critical materials. Niron’s Iron Nitride-based Clean Earth Magnet® technology makes use of globally available commodity raw material inputs. As an ARPA-E SCALEUP awardee, Niron is expanding its pilot production to support commercial design partnerships, including those with GM, Volvo Cars, Western Digital, Tymphany Audio, and Premium Sound Solutions.
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Nominations of Dr. Kathryn Huff to be Asst. Secretary of Energy (Nuclear), Dr. David Applegate to be USGS Director, Carmen Cantor to be Asst. Secretary of the Interior (Insular and International Affairs), Dr. Evelyn Wang to be ARPA-E Director
The first business meeting will be held on Thursday, April 28, 2022, at 10:00 a.m., immediately preceding the previously scheduled hearing in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
The purpose of the business meeting is to consider the nomination of Dr. Kathryn Huff to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy (Nuclear Energy).
Following that, the next hearing will be held.
The purpose of the hearing is to consider the nominations of:- Dr. David Applegate to be Director of the United States Geological Survey;
- Ambassador Carmen G. Cantor to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior (Insular and International Affairs); and
- Dr. Evelyn Wang to be Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, Department of Energy.
Biden's National Climate Task Force Has First Official Meeting, Forms Climate Innovation Working Group
The White House National Climate Task Force, formed by a recent executive order, held its first meeting today. The first tweet from National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy’s official account displayed the participants.
Additionally, the White House announced the formation of the Climate Innovation Working Group as part of the Climate Task Force. The working group, co-chaired by the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, Office of Science of Technology and Policy, and Office of Management and Budget, will focus on climate technology research, development, and deployment.
According to the White House, the working group’s priorities will be:- zero net carbon buildings at zero net cost, including carbon-neutral construction materials;
- energy storage at one-tenth the cost of today’s alternatives;
- advanced energy system management tools to plan for and operate a grid powered by zero carbon power plants;
- very low-cost zero carbon on-road vehicles and transit systems;
- new, sustainable fuels for aircraft and ships, as well as improvements in broader aircraft and ship efficiency and transportation management;
- affordable refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pumps made without refrigerants that warm the planet;
- carbon-free heat and industrial processes that capture emissions for making steel, concrete, chemicals, and other important industrial products;
- carbon-free hydrogen at a lower cost than hydrogen made from polluting alternatives;
- innovative soil management, plant biologies, and agricultural techniques to remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the ground;
- direct air capture systems and retrofits to existing industrial and power plant exhausts to capture carbon dioxide and use it to make alternative products or permanently sequester it deep underground.
As part of that initiative, the Department of Energy announced that $100 million of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funds will be directed to the new ARPA-Climate initiative in support of basic research for advanced climate technology.
White House participants in today’s National Climate Task Force meeting:- Vice President Kamala Harris
- John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate
- Gina McCarthy, White House National Climate Advisor
- Ali Zaidi, deputy White House National Climate Advisor
- Bruce Reed, White House Deputy Chief of Staff
- David Hayes, special assistant to the president for climate policy
- Sonia Aggarwal, Senior Advisor to the President for Climate Policy and Innovation
- Susan Rice, Director of the United States Domestic Policy Council
- Nicole Budzinski, Chief of Staff at Office of Management and Budget
- Brian Deese, Director of the National Economic Council
- Kei Koizumi, Chief of Staff and Acting Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy; during Obama administration was Assistant Director for Federal Research and Development and Senior Advisor to the Director for the National Science and Technology Council at OSTP
- Cecilia Martinez, senior director for environmental justice, Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)
- Mark Chambers, senior director for building emissions, CEQ; formerly director of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sustainability office
- Maggie Thomas, Chief of Staff, Office of Domestic Climate Policy
- Jahi Wise, senior adviser for climate policy and finance in the Office of Domestic Climate Policy https://coalitionforgreencapital.com/cgcs-jahi-wise-heads-to-white-house-domestic-climate-policy-office/
- Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Transportation
- Janet Yellen, Secretary of Treasury
- Kathleen Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense
- Tarak Shah, Chief of Staff, Department of Energy
- Katelyn Walker Mooney, Policy Advisor, Department of Labor, previously the associate general counsel for House labor committee Chairman Bobby Scott
- Jenn Jones, Chief of Staff, Housing and Urban Development
- Robert Bonnie, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Senior Advisor, Climate, Department of Agriculture
- Raj Nayak; was on Biden Department of Labor transition team, and deputy Labor chief of staff during the Obama administration
- Roque Sanchez; was on Biden DOE transition team, and a former White House climate advisor during the Obama administration
- National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy
- Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen
- Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
- Attorney General (Merrick Garland, nominated)
- Secretary of the Interior (Deb Haaland, nominated)
- Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack, nominated)
- Secretary of Commerce (Gina Raimondo, nominated)
- Secretary of Education (Miguel Cardona, nominated)
- Secretary of Labor (Marty Walsh, nominated)
- Secretary of Health and Human Services (Xavier Becerra, nominated)
- Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Marcia Fudge, nominated)
- Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
- Secretary of Energy (Jennifer Granholm, nominated)
- Secretary of Homeland Security (Alejandro Mayorkas, nominated)
- Administrator of General Services (no nomination yet)
- Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (Brenda Mallory, nominated)
- Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (Michael Regan, nominated)
- Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Neera Tanden, nominated)
- Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (Eric Lander, nominated)
- Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Susan Rice
- Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan
- Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall
- Assistant to the President for Economic Policy Brian Deese