WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the inaugural ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit will take place March 1-3, 2010 at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The event, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) and organized by the Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries Organization (CTSI), with support from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and the Kauffman Foundation, will serve as a forum for the nation’s energy leaders to share ideas, collaborate, and identify key technology opportunities and challenges.

Summit participants will include members of the scientific and research communities, technology entrepreneurs, corporations with an interest in clean energy technologies, investors, policymakers, and government officials.

“I am especially excited about the first ever ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit,” said Chu. “This conference will bring together the nation’s top energy leaders and members of the scientific community to begin building the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, which will create new jobs and help reduce our carbon footprint.”

The summit will spotlight some of ARPA-E’s first round of 37 winning research projects and will for the first time showcase many of the more than 250 highly-rated research projects - out of the nearly 3,700 concept papers submitted - from the organization’s first $150 million solicitation. Panel topics at the conference will include identifying game-changing technologies, building regional energy innovation clusters, the role of energy in our national security, and successfully developing and commercializing energy technology breakthroughs. In addition, the conference will be preceded by a one-day program of workshops where researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors can meet ARPA-E’s program directors, discuss the goals and directions for ARPA-E’s technology program areas, and learn the outcomes of previous workshops on these topics. The pre-conference day also will offer tutorials on topics such as best practices for commercializing breakthrough energy technologies. For more information and to register for the summit, visit www.ct-si.org/events/EnergyInnovation.

Publication date: 01/18/2010