Within a year of receiving $24 million from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA–E), a half dozen of the agency's 121 high-risk research projects have attracted an additional $100 million in private-sector investment. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the investments indicate that the business community is keenly interested in commercializing the advanced battery, solar, and wind technologies that ARPA–E, DOE's newest and smallest R&D entity, began funding in 2010.
Chu and other speakers used ARPA–E's second annual showcase, held 28 February through 2 March, to rally support for clean-energy policies. "From my experience in California, it is absolutely clear that the green economy is the way to keep America competitive abroad and to provide economic growth and jobs at home," former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told the 2000 conference attendees. The US could slash its greenhouse gas emissions by half and close three-quarters of its coal power plants,...
