Feds Taking Requests for $100M in Energy Efficiency Stimulus

The U.S. Department of Energy is injecting another $100 million into energy efficiency in buildings, electricity storage and other energy saving technologies.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu on March 2 opened up the third round of funding under the Advanced Research Project Agency — Energy (ARPA-E), reports the San Francisco Business Times.

Chu said that ARPA-E aims to yield technology jumps, such as those that produced the Internet or lasers, reports CNET.

So far, ARPA-E has awarded $250 million in grants to companies and research institutions, for anything from electric vehicles to carbon capture and storage technologies.

The new announcement coincides with the ARPA-E summit, reports Renewable Energy Focus. The summit is focusing on three technology areas:

– Grid-Scale Rampable Intermittent Dispatchable Storage (GRIDS)- an effort to add cost-effective energy storage to the electrical grid.

– Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology (ADEPT) – an effort to develop materials for soft magnetics, high voltage switches and high-density charge storage.

– Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices (BEET-IT) – an effort to develop energy efficient cooling technologies that have less impact on global warming than existing devices.