Energy Department Awards $175M for Clean Energy R&D

The Department of Energy has announced $175 million to fund 68 research and development projects aimed at new technologies that support the United States’ advanced energy enterprise.

The selected projects are part of the OPEN 2021 program and will drive technologies for fusion energy, electric vehicles, offshore wind energy, nuclear recycling and other energy initiatives. OPEN 2021 is led by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the Department of Energy said.

Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Houston both received over $3 million in funding to develop novel technologies for transportation. Carnegie Mellon will develop fuel cells to enable more efficient and cost-friendly options for trucks and SUVs while UH will experiment on magnesium anodes to improve the U.S. battery supply chain security.

Nokia Bell Labs and Makai Ocean Engineering will use their funding allocation to develop clean energy technologies. Makai will focus on making wind turbines and hydrokinetic energy more accessible while Nokia will develop a thermal energy architecture that will reduce data server cooling energy and improve heating and cooling for buildings.

ARPA-E’s OPEN program has had four iterations since 2009 and has awarded over $600 million in funding to 255 projects. Some of the initiatives funded by the OPEN program include developments in solar and geothermal energies and enhancements in biofuels and battery platforms.

ARPA-E was founded in 2009 and has since provided around $2.93 billion in research and development funding. The organization has attracted over $7.6 billion in private-sector follow-on funding to commercialize clean energy technologies. It also paved the way for novel energy solution commercialization.