The national i6 Green initiative leverages resources of five federal agencies to advance clean technology commercialization, focusing on promoting Proof of Concept Centers methodologies. Credit: Economic Development Administration, Department of Commerce Last Friday was the last day of the Federal 2011 fiscal year, and award announcements were flying out of DC all afternoon. Several caught…
Read MoreDOE Recovery Act Funds status, 9/30/11. Credit: recovery.gov Two things out of the box: First, remember, permissum lector caveo (translation: What the hell does Peter know, anyway?). Second, the opinions expressed below are totally my own and should be blamed on no one else. Thus forewarned … Nature has what strikes me as a very disturbing article…
Read MoreEnergy secretary, Steven Chu, and ARPA-E director, Arun Majumdar. Majumdar recently announced the next Energy Innovation Summit will be Feb. 27-29, 2012. Credit: ARPA-E The lead story in today’s ARPA-E e-Newsletter is an announcement for the 2012 rendering of the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. Among the keynote speakers is Bill Gates. Really? What does Gates…
Read MoreCustom-built oxide molecular beam epitaxy system at Yale. Credit: CRISP. The National Science Foundation has awarded a Materials Research Science and Engineering Center grant of $13 million to a Yale University-Southern Connecticut State University joint collaboration. The new MRSEC will double the capacity of the universities’ already established Center for Research on Interface Structures and…
Read MoreCalisolar’s Sunnyvale, Calif., offices. Credit: Calisolar, Wikipedia Back in July, we reported how State of Ohio and federal officials were left scratching their head when Calisolar, a company that has developed a lower-cost method of purifying cheap, low-grade silicon, suddenly pulled out of a deal that would have had the enterprise building a factory just north of…
Read MoreTransphorm, one of the companies that will be receiving ARPA-E and private investment funding, uses gallium nitride transistors to tackle the current level of power conversion losses (10%). Credit: Energy Information Administration. ARPA-E announced a new round of seed awards, $1.5–$6 million each, which the agency says will unlock a total investment of $100 million…
Read MoreThe new Timken Engineered Surfaces Laboratory will be housed in the University of Akron’s new engineering research building. Credit: University of Akron. Back in July, the top story in national news was the budget and the debate over the debt ceiling. In the 11th hour Congress and the president came to an agreement that raised…
Read MoreThe Army Research Office’s Synthesis and Processing program is seeking white papers on the topic of the creation of superior structural materials through creative combinations of 1) microstructure engineering in extreme yet precise conditions to obtain novel and far-from-equilibrium microstructures; 2) advanced microscopy, probes and other characterization tools; and 3) integrated computational materials engineering. Although somewhat with…
Read MoreFuel cell powered bus in London. Credit: Tom Page, Creative Commons. Fuel cell supporters have generally been disappointed that the DOE hasn’t done more for the technology or hydrogen-based technologies, but the agency hasn’t totally lost interest. A few days ago, DOE announced grants of nearly $7 million (over five years) for four cost analyses…
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