Eight years ago, ARPA-E(Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy) was founded to be the DARPA of energy research – a place where the best and brightest could find funding for high risk, high reward ideas with the potential to revolutionize our energy system. President Trump has said this is a job for the private sector, and has proposed zeroing out the agency. Now, a new report from the National Academy of Sciences weighs in on whether ARPA-E is living up to expectations.
The review began almost two years ago, long before the current budget debate, and was actually stipulated in the legislation that created ARPA-E. Committee member John Wall says this was one of the most exhaustive agency reviews ever. The end result is a set of fourteen recommendations for improved operation of ARPA-E.
"It's all in the spirit of 'you don't have to be bad to get better,'" Wall said. "We were really clear that ARPA-E is moving in the right direction.
To date, ARPA-E projects have included things like advanced batteries that could give electric vehicles a five hundred mile range, to new semi-conductors that could make the electricity grid tens or hundreds of times more efficient than silicon. The agency website sports the tagline "changing what's possible," and Wall says research there is guided by the question "if it works, will it matter?"
Wall, an MIT-trained engineer and veteran of the energy industry, says the private sector can't and won't do the kinds of research that ARPA-E is designed for.
"It's not just about the dollars. It's about expertise and advanced analytical tools and to be able to leverage those tools and capabilities across multiple companies and even multiple industries," Wall said. "One company just can't do it."