DOE to Invest $100 Million for Transformative Clean Energy Solutions

The Department of Energy (DOE) is working to support President Biden’s climate innovation agenda via many of its programs, including through the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) OPEN 2021 funding opportunity. DOE will allocate $100 million specifically for research and development leading to cutting-edge, disruptive clean energy technologies to address the climate crisis.

The ARPA-E OPEN 2021 funding opportunity itself is broader in scope, seeking any ideas that aim to solve critical energy issues facing the United States. Specifically, the OPEN funding opportunity seeks to fund high-impact technology that is often considered too risky for the private sector to pursue alone. In announcing $100 million specifically for climate-related technologies, DOE is sending a clear message that this will be one of the agency’s top priorities moving forward under the Biden administration. This announcement is the newest in a series of actions taken by the Biden administration to address climate crisis and to aim to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.

Regarding the announcement, DOE Chief of Staff Tarak Shah said: “Today we are inviting scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs and creative thinkers around America to join us in developing the energy technologies we need to tackle the climate crisis and build a more equitable clean energy economy.”

Since ARPA-E was founded in 2009, the agency has issued an OPEN funding opportunity approximately every three years in order to investigate energy technology concepts that are outside of the scope of previous ARPA-E program funding.

OPEN 2021 was issued on February 11, 2021 and concept papers are due on April 6, 2021. ARPA-E plans to host a webinar series  to help potential applicants learn what interests ARPA-E Program Directors and to understand the agency’s selection and funding processes.

For more information visit: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Default.aspx#FoaId2b1605fb-a156-4d55-aa5b-b4c1a213c736 (DE-FOA-0002459).