Energy Department Receives 3500 New Energy Concept Papers

Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy Techline Issued on: July 8, 2009

High Interest in ARPA-E’s Initial Funding Opportunity for Transformational Energy Technology

ARPA-E Begins Review of 3,500 Potentially Transformational R&D Proposals

Washington, DC – The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) completed the submission stage of its first Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) released April 27th, 2009. ARPA-E has received approximately 3,500 concept papers for the $150 million available as part of this FOA (DE-FOA-0000065).

The large number of submissions – “Concept Papers” - for ARPA-E’s initial FOA outstripped the expectations of industry observers and highlights America’s capacity for Energy technology innovation that can be applied to transformational research and development (R&D).

ARPA-E’s first solicitation is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The announcement is primarily aimed at prospective applicants who already have a relatively well-formed R&D plan for a transformational concept or new technology that can make a significant contribution if and when successfully deployed. Submitters of the most meritorious Concept Papers will be encouraged to submit Full Proposals. ARPA-E expects to provide responses to Concept Paper applicants by the end of the last week in July on whether a Concept is likely to form a basis of a successful Full Proposal. The deadline for Full Proposals is expected to be the end of August.

ARPA-E is currently planning future solicitations as part of its ongoing mission to fund and support transformational energy-related technology research and development.

For more information about ARPA-E, including updated FAQs, please visit http://arpa-e.energy.gov/

The Obama Energy Lie

Obama talks a good line about the environment. But, it's all talk and no change. He claimed that his Administration is funding energy research and development. Don't believe it. If you go to the Energy Dept website, you'll find a page which tells you that no new projects after 2008 have yet to be funded. So much for the Obama lie.

Obama's real plan is to transfer wealth from the middle class to the lower class via an energy tax. He dresses it up in flowery language, but when you think about it, he simply thinks of himself as the Robin Hood of the 21 Century, taking from those who have money and giving it to the poor.

The Midas Touch

The popularity of Gold is based, in part, upon scarcity. Given the cost of mining Gold, supply and demand, we have the emotional aspect which has been driving the price of the precious metal up.

But, what if Gold could be "mined" at much cheaper prices? What would that do to Gold?

Clearly, it would drive the price of Gold lower.

Thermopower will be able to "mine" Gold at extremely cheap prices in the future by using an electrolysis technique to extract Gold.

If you're a long term Gold investor, don't expect to get rich. Gold is an insurance policy. Treat the cost of Gold as a cost of doing business. The premium you pay for Gold may be lost in the future when Thermopower becomes available to the public.

Cooler Computers

Did you know that some CPU coolers in computers already use a primitive thermopower generator? Yes, indeed, thermoelectric CPU coolers use some of the waste heat generated by the computer to cool the machine. Of course, traditional thermoelectric generators are quite inefficient compared to thermopwer generators, but the principle remains the same.

In the near future, with a thermopower generator installed in your computer, you won't need to be limited by battery power for your laptop computer. The heat from the air will be converted to electricity to power the machine. And, the heat generated by the computer will be used to help provide some of that electricity to run the machine.

Australian Bushfires

The devastating bushfires in Victoria, Australia, this week underscores the dangers of not developing thermopower, which is capable of climate modification. In fact, according to Nature,

Climate models do suggest that Australian summers will get warmer and drier as the century proceeds, and there is little doubt that this will have an effect on fire risk.

"Heatwaves and fires are virtually certain to increase in intensity and frequency," the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in its most recent Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.

By 2080, average temperatures in central Australia could increase by up to 8C, according to the IPCC's most extreme regional prediction. Within 400 kilometres of the coast, the continent could still warm by up to 5.4C, and the amount of rainfall could decrease by up to 80%.

In southeast Australia, the frequency of very high and extreme fire danger days is likely to rise by 425% by 2020 and by 1570% by 2050, according to the IPCC's report.

Other regions exposed to high wildfire risk, including southern Europe, South Africa and the southwestern United States, face similar changes. Increased fire frequency could lead to vegetation changes that would reduce plant growth, decreasing the amount of carbon that plants remove from the atmosphere --- further exacerbating greenhouse warming by carbon dioxide.

Clearly, the time to act is now. With thermopower, the outback can be a virtual paradise. Without it, it may turn into a hell on Earth.

A Solution To Global Warming

According to a prominent NOAA scientist who discovered the cause of the ozone hole, even if we completely stop adding carbon to the atmosphere right now (something none of the "green" groups even advocates), the Earth will continue warming for the next thousand years. Susan Solomon found that heating is irreversible.

Although that's a pretty bleak outlook, Thermopower can actually reverse Global Warming. By converting some of the heat that's in our atmosphere to electricity and beaming it into space as radio waves, we can cool off the planet and save it---and us---from being cooked alive.

Around the World in Your Flying Car

Certainly, the dream of having a flying car has been around a very long time. From Wikipedia, we learn that:

Glenn Curtiss, the Wrights' chief rival, was the first to design a flying car. The first flying car to actually fly was built by Waldo Waterman. Waterman became associated with Curtiss while Curtiss was pioneering naval aviation at North Island on San Diego Bay in the 1910s. However, it wasn't until March 21, 1937 that Waterman's Aerobile first took to the air. The Aerobile was a development of Waterman's tailless aircraft, the Whatsit. It had a wingspan of 38 feet (11 m) and a length of 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 m). On the ground and in the air it was powered by a Studebaker engine. It could fly at 112 mph (180 km/h) and drive at 56 mph (90 km/h).

The day of the flying car is close at hand and it will be powered by a thermopower engine. With no fuel tank and no fuel to weigh it down, the flying car will be the "must have" item for the wealthy. With thermopower engines allowing the public to drive endlessly without having to "gas up" periodically, roads will be clogged and getting from here to there will become the major frustration of drivers in the future. It will become clear to the wealthy that the only solution will be to buy their own flying car to escape the congestion on the roads below.