• Login
    • Join
  • FOLLOW:
  • Subscribe Free
    • eNewsletter
    Checkout
    • Magazine
    • News
    • Printed Electronics
    • Raw Materials
    • Equipment
    • Services
    • Suppliers Guide
    • Resources
    • More
  • Magazine
  • News
  • Printed Electronics
  • Raw Materials
  • Equipment
  • Services
  • Suppliers Guide
  • Resources
  • Current & Past Issues
    Features
    Editorials
    Digital Edition
    Subscribe Now
    Advertise Now
    eNewsletter Archive
    Our Team
    Editorial Guidelines
    Breaking News
    Experts Opinion
    Financial News
    Manufacturers News
    Mergers and Acquisitions
    Online Exclusives
    Personnel
    Product Releases
    Suppliers News
    Live From Shows
    Displays and Lighting
    Photovoltaics
    Printed Batteries
    Printed Circuit Boards/Membrane Switches/In Mold Electronics
    Flexible and Printed Electronics
    RFID and NFC
    Sensors and Wearables
    Smart Cards and Packaging
    Touch Screens
    Adhesives, Barriers and Encapsulants
    Chemicals, Metals and Powders
    Conductive Inks and Coatings
    Electronic Materials
    Film, Paper, Glass and Substrates
    Graphene, Perovskites and Carbon Nanotubes
    Nanomaterials
    Printed Electronic Components
    Research Reports
    Semiconductors and Quantum Dots
    Energy Curing Equipment
    Lab and Testing Equipment
    Manufacturing Equipment
    Printing Equipment
    3D Printing
    Contract Manufacturing Services
    Product Design and Testing
    Research and Consulting
    Research Institutions
    Research Reports
    Universities
    Equipment
    All Companies
    Materials
    Categories
    Converting
    Printed Electronics Systems
    Associations
    Research and Services
    Used Machinery
    Add New Company
    Industry Events
    Live from show events
    Podcasts
    Videos
    Blogs
    Slideshows
    Infographics
    Webinars
    Whitepapers
    Equipment and Services
    Glossary
    • Magazine
      • Current & Past Issues
      • Features
      • Editorial
      • Columns
      • Digital Edition
      • eNewsletter Archive
      • Editorial Guidelines
      • Subscribe Now
      • Advertise Now
    • Breaking News
    • Suppliers Guide
      • Suppliers Guide
      • Add Your Company
    • Printed Electronics
      • Photovoltaics
      • Printed Batteries
      • Printed Circuit Boards/Membrane Switches/In Mold Electronics
      • Flexible and Printed Electronics
      • RFID and NFC
      • Sensors and Wearables
      • Smart Cards and Packaging
      • Touch Screens
    • Raw Materials
      • Adhesives, Barriers and Encapsulants
      • Chemicals, Metals and Powders
      • Conductive Inks and Coatings
      • Electronic Materials
      • Film, Paper, Glass and Substrates
      • Graphene, Perovskites and Carbon Nanotubes
      • Nanomaterials
      • Semiconductors and Quantum Dots
    • Equipment
      • Energy Curing Equipment
      • Lab and Testing Equipment
      • Manufacturing Equipment
      • Printing Equipment
      • 3D Printing
    • Services
      • Contract Manufacturing Services
      • Product Design and Testing
      • Research and Consulting
      • Research Institutions
      • Research Reports
      • Universities
    • Online Exclusives
    • Slideshows
    • Blog
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Infographics
    • Events
      • Industry Events
      • Live from show events
      • Webinars
    • About Us
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of Use
    Breaking News

    ARPA-E Investment in NREL Pays Dividends in Advancing Energy Tech

    DOE funding program provides pathway for new ideas.

    ARPA-E Investment in NREL Pays Dividends in Advancing Energy Tech
    Andrew Duvall oversaw NREL’s Connected Traveler project, which relied on ARPA-E funding and focused on using behavioral nudges to shift commuters toward energy-efficient and shared travel options. Photo by Dennis Schroeder/NREL
    Related CONTENT
    • ARPA-E and The Connected Traveler: A Framework to Reduce Energy Use in Transportation
    • FHE for Defense Applications Workshop Participants Enthusiastic About DoD Requirements
    • DOE Program Awards NREL $3.2 Million for Selected Energy Research
    • ‘Nothing’ Technology Creates Less-Expensive Thin-Film Solar Cells
    • $3 Million Solar Prize Round 2 Plans to Drive Innovation in US Solar Manufacturing
    07.05.19
    Six words grab John Perkins’ attention whenever he sees a presentation from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy: “If it works, will it matter?”
     
    “On that slide, ‘will it matter?’ is in a much bigger font than ‘if it works,’” said Perkins, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s laboratory program manager for the 10-year-old agency (ARPA-E). “The point of that is they are willing to fund things that are technologically very risky—where it’s unclear as to whether or not you can actually accomplish the technological goals. But if it does work, it needs to be a slam dunk that’s going to matter a lot. They don’t fund basic research.”
     
    ARPA-E and NREL both fall under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Energy. While typical DOE spending at NREL allows the laboratory to explore such fundamentals as making biofuels cost-effective or solar cells more efficient, ARPA-E awards funding for futuristic ideas. Modeled on a Department of Defense (DoD) effort to put emerging technologies into the hands of the military, ARPA-E provides funds to overcome roadblocks that might otherwise prevent promising energy ideas from reaching the public.
     
    “They always swing for the fences,” said Perkins. “It’s OK from their perspective if not every single project they grant is successful. They’re doing high-risk, high-reward research, so not everything they fund ends up being technically successful. But the point is: A significant amount of what they fund is technically successful and becomes pretty impactful. They’re trying to win by only hitting home runs. That’s the way they go about it.”
     
    Projects funded by ARPA-E are showcased at the agency’s annual Energy Innovation Summit, which this year will be held July 8-10 at the Gaylord Rockies Convention Center in Aurora, CO. This marks the first time the summit is being conducted outside of Washington, D.C.
     
    ARPA-E reported to Congress in September that it has funded 722 projects to date, investing $1.9 billion. Its annual budget averages about $292 million. Projects are typically funded for several years, at $2 million–$3 million each. The funds are open to universities, industry, and national laboratories such as NREL, although laboratories must have a partner involved.
     
    NREL has a role in 25 ARPA-E-funded projects. Without that funding, NREL scientists acknowledge, their research wouldn’t be as far along as it is.
     
    “Without ARPA-E, we would not be on the trajectory that we’re on today,” said Aaron Ptak, a senior scientist at NREL. He and others are working to make the highly efficient solar cells used on satellites and Mars rovers less costly to produce so they can also be made available for use on Earth.
     
    ARPA-E issues topically specific Funding Opportunity Announcements throughout the year, alerting the scientific community to areas of research the agency is interested in supporting—but occasionally, the agency opens the process up for researchers to make pitches. Once every three years, ARPA-E has an OPEN FOA in which researchers can propose any topic in the ARPA-E mission space. That was the route Ptak took for his project.
     
    Ptak and his colleagues improved on a method that uses chemicals from the third and fifth column of the periodic table (the so-called III-V materials) to make solar cells. The scientists pioneered a new growth technique, dynamic hydride vapor-phase epitaxy (D-HVPE), to deposit the chemicals onto a semiconductor wafer to create a solar cell quicker and cheaper than the current method. The initial research at NREL demonstrated the first multijunction solar cells using the HVPE growth technique.
     
    “What we wanted to do involved some risk,” Ptak said, “and ARPA-E was really the logical place to go. Without their support, we would probably still be plugging along, but we wouldn’t be nearly as far as we are now. That’s for sure.”
     
    In deciding whether to fund a project, ARPA-E wants to see the answers to certain questions: What problem will this product solve? Who’s willing to buy it?
     
    “You have to make sure the markets are there,” Ptak said. “Your technology could be super cool, but if nobody wants it, then why is ARPA-E funding it? They want to fund things that people really want, that really solve problems.”
     
    ARPA-E invested $5.76 million – including $3.9 million directly to NREL – in Ptak’s project, titled “Ultrahigh Efficiency Photovoltaics at Ultralow Costs.” The funding was due to expire in April 2019 but has been extended for another six months. The NREL researchers promised ARPA-E they could produce a III-V solar cell with a 30% conversion efficiency; so far, it’s at about 25%.
     
    “There are just a couple of small hurdles that we need to tackle to get to 30%,” said Kevin Schulte, who, along with Ptak and John Simon, is working on the D-HVPE project. “We understand what they are, and we don’t think they’re insurmountable. Technologically, it should work. I think we’ve proved that.”
     
    D-HVPE research has yielded a series of journal articles and conference presentations – and has attracted additional funds. DoD, for example, is funding Ptak’s team to develop a new reactor. “Without the ARPA-E project, there’s no way that would have happened,” Ptak said. “They saw the promise. They saw that the material quality was there, that the understanding of the device was there, that the path to 30% was certainly plausible, if not likely. Without seeing all that from the ARPA-E project, there’s no way they would have been interested in HVPE as a technology."
     
    Typically, federal agencies decide to invest in research based on its technology readiness level (TRL). NASA developed the TRL concept in the 1970s as a method to estimate the maturity of a technology, scoring it on a scale from 1–9. The higher the number, the closer the technology is to commercialization. The scale was later adopted by DOE and others—but ARPA-E doesn’t take TRL into account when picking its investments.


    NREL Scientists John Simon (left), Kevin Schultz, and Aaron Ptak pioneered a new growth technique to make III-V solar cells more affordable. The team relied on funds from ARPA-E to further the research. Photo by Dennis Schroeder/NREL
     
    Emiliano Dall’Anese, the original principal investigator (PI) on an NREL-led effort to improve control of the nation’s electrical grid, said ARPA-E’s decision to fund the project “was instrumental because they gave us the possibility to start from low-TRL ideas. We couldn’t do that with other DOE-funded projects. It gave us the possibility to build the framework from the ground level, even from a TRL of 2.”
     
    ARPA-E provided $4.2 million – $2.54 million directly to NREL – for the “Real-Time Optimization and Control of Next-Generation Distribution Infrastructure” project. Working with such universities as Harvard and the California Institute of Technology, and in collaboration with the utility Southern California Edison, NREL was able to shift the idea from theory to practical application.
     
    The nation’s electrical grid was designed to carry electricity in one direction: from centralized power plants to the consumer. But the grid has evolved so that energy generated from various renewable sources is now in the mix – and consumers are able to generate their own power and feed what isn’t needed back into the grid. All these changes have introduced a measure of uncertainty into the existing power system. The NREL-led project offers an innovative solution to smooth out that uncertainty.
     
    Now in its last year of ARPA-E funding, the project has demonstrated the ability of control systems to balance the amount of energy demanded by consumers with power generated by either a utility or a distributed energy resource such as a residential solar array.
     
    “We started with very small experiments, with 10 devices,” said Andrey Bernstein, the current PI on the project. “This was successful, so we gradually extended it to 100 devices at NREL to show how it scales.”
     
    Computer simulations proved the control system worked, but it would still need to be tested in real-world scenarios. “The simulation represents a perfect world,” Bernstein said. “You tell the devices to increase power, they increase power – while in a real system, maybe they increase and maybe they don’t. Even if you know things work in simulation, you need to make sure they work in real life.”
     
    The real-life experiments are taking place now, with demonstrations underway at a winery in California and an electric cooperative in Colorado. Bernstein said he should have the results this summer. But convincing a utility to adopt the controllers is expected to take a while. “To convince them to adopt something new takes a lot of time,” he said. “Years, maybe.”
     
    Another NREL project funded by ARPA-E, “The Connected Traveler: A Framework to Reduce Energy Use in Transportation,” attempted to convince people to use different ways to get around.
     
    “There was a call by ARPA-E for transportation-focused but behavioral-infused projects,” said Andrew Duvall, the PI on the Connected Traveler project. “In the past, ARPA-E has funded high-risk, high-reward projects. They still do. But those have been very technologically focused. This was the first call for proposals that included the human component within transportation – using behavioral levers to convince people to try alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles.”
     
    Working with university partners and app developer Metropia, NREL provided estimates on how much energy was required to get from point A to point B and how much could be saved by taking an alternative route, leaving at a different time, or finding another way to make the trip. The app was tested in several cities to determine the incentives needed to get people to make changes. Based on their decisions, users earned points that could be redeemed for a reward, such as a gift card.
     
    “Our findings were that incentives – fairly modest incentives, really – were sufficient to change people’s behavior,” Duvall said, adding that asking travelers to make incremental changes proved to be the key. “Instead of asking people to make radical changes like leaving their car at home from now on, we asked them to leave their car at home for the day.”
     
    Over the course of this $1.57 million research effort (with $560,000 to NREL), the country saw a vast change in how people get around. “Between 2015 and 2018, the landscape for urban mobility changed fairly significantly,” Duvall said. “If you think about it, in 2015, bike sharing and car sharing existed in several cities, but in most locations weren’t much more than a novelty. They weren’t engaged by a large segment of the population. By 2018, when the project ended, however, Uber and Lyft were household names. Small electric kick scooters appeared in late 2017. The whole concept of shared or alternative mobility started becoming mainstream. And we’re still in that process now. It’s kind of like the Wild West.”
     
    Metropia integrated Uber into its own app so Uber users could receive credits for something they were already doing.
     
    Without ARPA-E, Duvall said, shifting the behaviors of travelers “would have been possible, but much less likely. It would have been possible to conceptually make this happen, but ARPA-E enabled it by bringing together all the partners that contributed pieces and ended up making a cohesive product that was market-ready.”
     
    Thanks to ARPA-E, he said, the partners were able to move “from an early-stage concept to something that’s tangible and valuable in the real world.”







    Main photo: Andrew Duvall oversaw NREL’s Connected Traveler project, which relied on ARPA-E funding and focused on using behavioral nudges to shift commuters toward energy-efficient and shared travel options. Photo by Dennis Schroeder/NREL
    Related Searches
    • solar cells
    • solar
    • photovoltaics
    • devices
    Suggested For You
    ARPA-E and The Connected Traveler: A Framework to Reduce Energy Use in Transportation ARPA-E and The Connected Traveler: A Framework to Reduce Energy Use in Transportation
    FHE for Defense Applications Workshop Participants Enthusiastic About DoD Requirements FHE for Defense Applications Workshop Participants Enthusiastic About DoD Requirements
    DOE Program Awards NREL $3.2 Million for Selected Energy Research DOE Program Awards NREL $3.2 Million for Selected Energy Research
    ‘Nothing’ Technology Creates Less-Expensive Thin-Film Solar Cells ‘Nothing’ Technology Creates Less-Expensive Thin-Film Solar Cells
    $3 Million Solar Prize Round 2 Plans to Drive Innovation in US Solar Manufacturing $3 Million Solar Prize Round 2 Plans to Drive Innovation in US Solar Manufacturing
    ExxonMobil Supporting National Lab Research for Future Energy Solutions at Scale ExxonMobil Supporting National Lab Research for Future Energy Solutions at Scale
    Your Renewable Energy Technology is Growing Old – What Your Renewable Energy Technology is Growing Old – What's Next?
    Perovskite Breakthrough Shows Importance of Added Chemical Compound in Boosting Efficiency Perovskite Breakthrough Shows Importance of Added Chemical Compound in Boosting Efficiency
    New NREL, Georgia Tech Collaborative Appointment Program Launched New NREL, Georgia Tech Collaborative Appointment Program Launched
    NREL’s Economic Impact Tops $1 Billion NREL’s Economic Impact Tops $1 Billion
    NREL: Improvements in PV Performance Measurement NREL: Improvements in PV Performance Measurement
    NREL Names Achilles Karagiozis as Buildings, Thermal Sciences Center Director NREL Names Achilles Karagiozis as Buildings, Thermal Sciences Center Director
    NREL Seeks Participants for 2019 Executive Energy Leadership Program NREL Seeks Participants for 2019 Executive Energy Leadership Program
    NREL’s New Supercomputer, Eagle, Takes Flight NREL’s New Supercomputer, Eagle, Takes Flight

    Related Videos

    • Breaking News | Photovoltaics | Research Institutions
      ARPA-E and The Connected Traveler: A Framework to Reduce Energy Use in Transportation

      ARPA-E and The Connected Traveler: A Framework to Reduce Energy Use in Transportation

      Andrew Duvall and Jacob Holden of the NREL explain the thinking behind The Connected Traveler project.

    • Breaking News | Flexible and Printed Electronics
      FHE for Defense Applications Workshop Participants Enthusiastic About DoD Requirements

      FHE for Defense Applications Workshop Participants Enthusiastic About DoD Requirements

      The workshop focused on three strategic areas for the Department of Defense.
      Scott Miller, Director of Strategic Programs, NextFlex 06.28.19

    • Breaking News | Graphene, Perovskites and Carbon Nanotubes | Photovoltaics | Research Institutions

      DOE Program Awards NREL $3.2 Million for Selected Energy Research

      High efficiency, lightweight, flexible multijunction perovskite modules are among the funded projects.
      06.28.19


    • Breaking News | Photovoltaics | Research Institutions
      ‘Nothing’ Technology Creates Less-Expensive Thin-Film Solar Cells

      ‘Nothing’ Technology Creates Less-Expensive Thin-Film Solar Cells

      The team’s research produced a 14.44%-efficient GaAs solar cell formed on a very thin layer of reformed porous germanium.
      06.06.19

    • Breaking News | Photovoltaics | Research Institutions

      $3 Million Solar Prize Round 2 Plans to Drive Innovation in US Solar Manufacturing

      Second round of DOE Solar Prize invites new participants to advance solar technologies.
      05.29.19

    Loading, Please Wait..
    Trending
    • Flexible And Printed Electronics Among CES 2023 Highlights
    • STMicroelectronics Reports Q4, FY 2022 Financial Results
    • Siman Group Partners With SML To Unlock Full Retail Potential With RFID
    • Sensormatic Solutions By Johnson Controls, Zliide To Reimagine Self-Checkout
    • Henkel Highlights Pad Printing, Antenna Technologies At LOPEC 2023
    Breaking News
    • Weekly Recap: Avery Dennison, CES 2023 and Canatu’s LiDAR Deicing Top This Week’s Stories
    • Celanese Launches Nine New Conductive Inks
    • NREL Develops Thin, Lightweight Layer for Radiation Barrier for Perovskites in Space
    • LG Display Reports Fourth Quarter 2022 Results
    • STMicroelectronics Reports Q4, FY 2022 Financial Results
    View Breaking News >
    CURRENT ISSUE

    Winter 2021

    • Printed Electronics Now’s International Suppliers’ Directory
    • The Automotive Market and Flexible and Printed Electronics
    • Flexible and Printed Electronics in Healthcare
    • Flexible and Printed Electronics Make Gains in Smart Packaging
    • PAPERONICS: Low-cost multisensory paper and packaging applications
    • View More >

    Cookies help us to provide you with an excellent service. By using our website, you declare yourself in agreement with our use of cookies.
    You can obtain detailed information about the use of cookies on our website by clicking on "More information”.

    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms And Conditions
    • Contact Us

    follow us

    Subscribe
    Nutraceuticals World

    Latest Breaking News From Nutraceuticals World

    Nutrasource Rebrands Clinical Trial Site to Apex Trials
    Kerry Sponsors Upcycled Food Foundation Research Fellowship
    Probiotics Supplementation Reduces Complications in Colorectal Cancer Patients
    Coatings World

    Latest Breaking News From Coatings World

    Epoxytec Announces New Website Launch
    Paints and Coatings Market Worth $212B by 2026: MarketsandMarkets
    Axalta Releases Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results
    Medical Product Outsourcing

    Latest Breaking News From Medical Product Outsourcing

    MPO's Most-Read Stories This Week—Jan. 28
    Alleviant Medical Closes $75M Financing Round
    Know Labs Founder Ron Erickson Named CEO
    Contract Pharma

    Latest Breaking News From Contract Pharma

    SK bioscience Introduces New Global Partnership Model for Vaccines
    Merck's KEYTRUDA Wins Expanded Approval in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
    Bone Biologics Engages Avania for NB1 Clinical Trial
    Beauty Packaging

    Latest Breaking News From Beauty Packaging

    LVMH Reports Record 2022
    Haircare Brand Uncle Funky’s Daughter Announces Retail Expansion
    TRESemmé Introduces New Pro Infusion Collection
    Happi

    Latest Breaking News From Happi

    Consumers Trust P&G, Newell Brands To Restructure
    Alix Earle, Jonathan Monroe Are Fast-Growing Beauty Influencers on Instagram
    Fragrance Creators Launches First-of-its-Kind Data Insights Program
    Ink World

    Latest Breaking News From Ink World

    Weekly Recap: Sustainability and Pigments, TSCA and Raw Materials Top This Week’s Stories
    Roland DGA Announces Major Expansion of TrueVIS Printer Family
    Neos Expands Production Capacity, European Market Presence
    Label & Narrow Web

    Latest Breaking News From Label & Narrow Web

    Label industry mourns CCL's Alan Horn, Baldwin focuses on narrow web and more
    Channeled Resources launches blank labels with PET liner
    Infigo partners with Four Pees in Benelux region
    Nonwovens Industry

    Latest Breaking News From Nonwovens Industry

    Weekly Recap: Thinx Settles Class Action Lawsuit, Abena, Finess Hygiene Announce Merger & More
    Essity’s Sales Grow
    Thinx to Pay up to $5 million to Settle Class Action Suit
    Orthopedic Design & Technology

    Latest Breaking News From Orthopedic Design & Technology

    ODT's Most-Read Stories This Week—Jan. 28
    Roche, Sysnav Partner on Movement Tracking Tech for Neuromuscular Disorders
    Orthopedic Braces/Support, Casting/Splints Market to Top $12B by 2030
    Printed Electronics Now

    Latest Breaking News From Printed Electronics Now

    Weekly Recap: Avery Dennison, CES 2023 and Canatu’s LiDAR Deicing Top This Week’s Stories
    Celanese Launches Nine New Conductive Inks
    NREL Develops Thin, Lightweight Layer for Radiation Barrier for Perovskites in Space

    Copyright © 2023 Rodman Media. All rights reserved. Use of this constitutes acceptance of our privacy policy The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Rodman Media.

    AD BLOCKER DETECTED

    Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
    Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.


    FREE SUBSCRIPTION Already a subscriber? Login