Obama Promises a DARPA for Energy and Frontier Research Centers

Anyone worried that the federal government's energy stimulus spending would be focused on "shovel-ready" projects to the detriment of research has gotten nearly $1.2 billion in relief from President Barack Obama.

That's how much Obama pledged to dedicate to two new energy research programs this week. First is $400 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, meant to be modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

That's the agency that has given us such things as the Internet and Predator drones. ARPA-E, on the other hand, has existed on paper since 2007 without funding — until now. But the Obama Administration has said it wants to make up for lost time.

From May 12 to June 2, it will be accepting concept papers that promise "high-risk, high-payoff transformational energy-related R&D" projects that need help crossing the "valley of death" between development and commercialization.

The Department of Energy has also announced winners in the $777 million Energy Frontier Research Centers program — public-private partnerships aimed at developing cutting-edge energy technology. 46 projects were chosen each to receive $2 million to $5 million a year to study concepts like photosynthesis-based biofuel production and nanoscale energy conversion and storage systems.

Among the companies taking part in projects are Philips Lumileds Lighting (to "study energy conversion in tailored nanostructures as a basis for dramatically improved solid-state lighting") and General Electric (to "realize breakthroughs in the efficient conversion of sunlight into electricity in nanometer sized thin films" and to find an "entirely new approach to energy storage that combines the best properties of a fuel cell and a flow battery").