Boston Based Groups Selected to Showcase Technology at 2011ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit

February 25, 2011

BOSTON — Four cutting edge Boston based groups are excited to announce their selection for the prestigious Technology Showcase at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, co-hosted by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy (ARPA-E) and the Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries Organization (CTSI). Hundreds of top technologists and cutting-edge clean tech organizations competed to participate in the Showcase, a hallway of America’s most promising prospects for winning the future in energy.

Chosen to be amongst ARPA-E’s selected organizations, the four groups will exhibit their technologies to nearly 2,000 national leaders gathering to drive long-term American competitiveness in the energy sector, including top researchers, investors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives and government officials. More than 200 groundbreaking technologies from ARPA-E awardees, corporations, National Labs and Department of Energy R&D programs will be featured at the event.

"These innovative Massachusetts companies represent the future of clean energy technology, and prove that the Commonwealth’s world class academic institutions and innovation resources are helping to make Massachusetts a clean energy leader," said Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Executive Director Patrick Cloney. "We are proud to have so many companies represented at the ARPA-E Innovation Summit."

Research and business development teams from 14 Corporate Acceleration Partners committed to technology commercialization will also be present including Dow, Bosch, Applied Materials and Lockheed Martin.

The Summit also features high-profile speakers including U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar, U.S. Navy Secretary Raymond Mabus, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bank of America Chairman Charles Holliday.

The second annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit will take place February 28 – March 2, 2011 at the Gaylord Convention Center just outside Washington, D.C. To learn more or to register please visit: www.ct-si.org/events/EnergyInnovation .

About the Four Chosen Boston Groups

Boston University
Technology: Large scale rapid response energy storage and electrical energy generation system
Description: The energy storage and recovery is based on the W/WO3 (20 kWh/L of tungsten based on LHV of hydrogen) system, cycled between the tungsten (W) metal and its oxide during the storage and recovery cycles, respectively. The storage system is integrated with a reversible solid oxide electrochemical cell (RSOEC) stack. In this arrangement, the system will store energy when the RSOEC stack is operated as a steam electrolyzer, and generate electricity when the stack is operated as a fuel cell. Mass and Energy balance calculations show a round trip efficiency of 75-80%. This is a cost-effective storage/recovery system that will address the intermittency and ramping challenges for the transmission of renewable electric energy and variations in peak demand. The system is modular and would scale effectively for various utility and off-grid applications.

FastCAP Systems
Fueled by a multi-million dollar grant by the Department of Energy (APRA-E), and additional funding though the Chesonis Family Foundation, angel investment and the State of Massachusetts, FastCAP Systems seeks to transform the automotive and grid storage markets by commercializing its novel and enabling high-power, high-energy and low-cost energy storage device. FastCAP’s proprietary carbon nanotube electrode technology has enabled breakthrough performance improvement in its cells when compared with commercially available ultracapacitors, a leap forward that could lead to dramatic reductions in the cost of hybrid electric vehicles. And because FastCAP’s ultracapacitors are produced with abundant, eco-friendly raw materials and have extremely long life cycles, the environmental benefits associated with widespread deployment of the technology are unlimited.

Ginkgo BioWorks
Ginkgo BioWorks engineers new organisms to solve challenges across a range of industries from fuels to pharmaceutical production. Our biological engineers make use of an in-house pipeline of synthetic biology technologies to design, build, and test new organisms.

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
Technology: Engineering a Bacterial Reverse Fuel Cell
Technology description: Wyss Institute researchers are developing a new system for converting sunlight into electricity that is significantly more efficient than current approaches that rely on photosynthesis. The new technology involves an engineered bacterium that uses electricity, which could come from renewable sources, to convert carbon dioxide into gasoline. The bacterium will act like a reverse fuel cell: where fuel cells use a fuel to produce electricity, this bacterium will start with electricity and produce a fuel.

About the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University (http://wyss.harvard.edu) uses Nature’s design principles to develop bioinspired materials and devices that will transform medicine and create a more sustainable world. Working as an alliance among Harvard’s Schools of Medicine, Engineering, and Arts & Sciences, and in partnership with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Boston, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Boston University, the Institute crosses disciplinary and institutional barriers to engage in high-risk research that leads to transformative technological breakthroughs. By emulating Nature’s principles for self-organizing and self-regulating, Wyss researchers are developing innovative new engineering solutions for healthcare, energy, architecture, robotics, and manufacturing. These technologies are translated into commercial products and therapies through collaborations with clinical investigators, corporate alliances, and new start-ups.

About ARPA-E
The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is a new agency within the U.S. Department of Energy – and the first to focus exclusively on breakthrough energy technologies that could radically change the way we use energy. Rather than performing research directly, ARPA-E invests in high-risk, high-reward energy technologies being developed by universities, startups, small businesses, and corporations. Our staff combines industry-leading scientists, engineers, and investment executives to identify promising solutions to the nation’s most critical energy problems and to fast-track top technologies towards the marketplace – which is critical to securing the nation’s global technology leadership and creating new American industries and jobs. www.arpa-e.energy.gov

About CTSI
The Clean Technology & Sustainable Industries Organization (CTSI), a 501c6 non-profit industry association, represents the organizations developing, commercializing, and implementing energy, water, and environmental technologies. Clean technologies offer much needed solutions to growing resource security and sustainability concerns and are critical to maintaining economic competitiveness. CTSI brings together global leaders for advocacy, community development, networking, and information sharing to help bring these needed technologies to market more rapidly. Visit www.ct-si.org for more information.