The Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding 37 research grants totaling $151 million for cutting-edge concepts such as bacteria that will produce gasoline, enzymes that will capture carbon dioxide to counter global warming, and batteries cheap enough to power solar energy through the night. Most of the radical proposals will probably fail, but a few could have “a transformative impact,” according to DOE Secretary Steven Chu. The money will go for projects at all stages of development, including some that exist simply as good ideas, Chu says. The grants to small businesses, educational institutions, and a few corporations may support some ideas until VCs or major companies pick them up. The effort, directed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), is modeled on the Department of Defense (DOD) program DARPA, which helped commercialize microchips and the Internet and helped develop body armor and other high-tech products. DARPA is known for quick decisions and long-shot bets — an approach seldom associated with the DOE.<\/p>\n
In the initial round, the grants average $4 million. One is going to researchers at the University of Minnesota who are developing one organism that uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into sugars and another that converts the sugars to gasoline and diesel. The two can live in a “co-culture” in a thin latex film, according to Lawrence P. Wackett, professor of biochemistry at U-Minn, although much research remains. “A venture capital group might say it’s a little early for them,” Wackett says. “It’s not all worked out, but that’s the spirit of ARPA-E.” A second grant is going to a group led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that is seeking to develop an all-liquid metal battery. The technology could smooth out the intermittent flow of power from sources like windmills and solar cells — displacing sources that emit heat-trapping gases like coal, oil, or gas. The DOE sifted through 3,600 preliminary proposals and selected 300 to be developed into fuller proposals before choosing those to finance in the first round. With only about 1% of the proposals receiving money, the DOE might decide to arrange a “fair” at which VCs could assess other proposals, Chu says.<\/p>\n