The Innovators Program is a core LACI (Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator) accelerator program serving early-stage cleantech startups in Southern California. Funded by the California Energy Commission’s Regional Energy Innovation Cluster (REIC), the program aims to support early stage entrepreneurs in launching their venture in California’s growing cleantech innovation ecosystem.

-Monthly opportunity updates and curated resources email
-Check-in’s with LACI expert every other month
-Lunch & Learns: Curriculum development opportunities
-Visibility in LACI’s network and ecosystem
-Discounted access to the La Kretz Innovation Campus (LKIC)

Startups must:
-Have a cleantech solution that addresses one of our three priority areas: Clean Energy, Zero Emissions Transportation and Smart & Sustainable Cities: Circular Economy.
-Be early stage: as early as pre-seed or pre-prototype, with a proof of concept.
-Own or license a novel proprietary technology.
-Operate out of one of the four counties in our Southern California territory.

Third Derivative is a joint venture of the world-renowned energy think-and-do-tank Rocky Mountain Institute and the premier global clean energy startup accelerator network New Energy Nexus. They are a next-generation accelerator with committed venture capital, a curated ecosystem of global corporations, and unparalleled market, regulatory, and policy insights.

By linking together startups, corporates, investors and our own technical experts, they’ll “accelerate the rate of change” (a.k.a. the third derivative) for how the world takes climate tech innovations from the lab to the market. Their vertically-integrated accelerator model will find, hone, fund, and scale promising energy technologies to achieve larger, faster reductions in greenhouse gas emissions globally.

They are looking for startups who are working to drive the energy transition, including those at the earliest stages of commercialization. There are only two criteria for applicants: 1) the startup must intend to be a for-profit entity, and 2) the startup must have at least two full-time employees at time of application.

ARPA-E seeks to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with commercial air travel at minimum economic cost by developing elements of an ultra-high efficient aircraft propulsion system that uses Carbon Neutral Liquid Fuels (CNLFs). Since these fuels generally either have lower specific-energies (kWh/kg) or are projected to have higher cost than traditional fossil-based jet fuels, ultra-high conversion efficiency is critical for the economic viability of this approach. An electrified propulsion system framework postulated by ARPA-E could potentially leverage multiple sources of stored energy (e.g. CNLF, batteries, etc.) to facilitate emerging propulsion concepts (e.g. distributed propulsion) and enable net-zero carbon emissions for long range, narrow-body, commercial aircraft.

The objective of the Range Extenders for Electric Aviation with Low Carbon and High Efficiency (REEACH) program is the development of one element of the electrified propulsion system framework: a system for the conversion of chemical energy contained in energy dense CNLFs to electric power for aircraft propulsion and hotel loads.

The Aviation-class Synergistically Cooled Electric-motors with iNtegrated Drives (ASCEND) program supports the development of novel lightweight and ultra-efficient electric motors, drives, and associated thermal management system (collectively referred to as the all-electric powertrain) that will facilitate net-zero carbon emissions in the single-aisle, 150-200 passenger commercial aircraft segment. This FOA represents part of a wider ARPA-E effort in the development of enabling technologies for long-range (≥ 2,800 nautical miles), carbon neutral commercial aviation. The goal is to reduce the emissions from commercial aviation by developing cost-competitive systems for the efficient conversion of the chemical energy of carbon-neutral liquid fuels (CNLFs) to delivered electric energy, which is then further converted to thrust via propulsors driven by electric motors and associated motor drives. The focus of the ASCEND program is the development of an all-electric powertrain as the prime mover for long-range, narrow-body aircraft such as the Boeing 737. Current electric powertrains do not have high enough power density and efficiency to enable competitive and fully decarbonized aviation for the narrow-body class of aircraft.

An enduring challenge to ARPA-E’s mission is that even technologies that achieve substantial technical advancement under ARPA-E support are at risk of being stranded in their development path once ARPA-E funding ends (averaging $2.5M over three years).

The SCALEUP FOA builds upon ARPA-E-funded technologies by scaling the most promising. Stranding promising ARPA-E-funded technologies in their development pathways leaves substantial intellectual property developed with American taxpayer dollars vulnerable to adoption by foreign competitors, who can and do capture it for continued development – and economic benefit – overseas. This harms national competitiveness, as U.S. industries often lose the lead on the development, scaling, and manufacturing of technologies necessary to compete in rapidly evolving global energy markets. These scaling energy technology projects will meet ARPA-E’s statutory direction to achieve the above goals by “ accelerating transformational technological advances in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty”.^[2]

Advanced computational infrastructure and the ability to perform large-scale simulations and accumulate massive amounts of data have revolutionized scientific and engineering disciplines. The goal of the CDS&E program is to identify and capitalize on opportunities for major scientific and engineering breakthroughs through new computational and data analysis approaches. The intellectual drivers may be in an individual discipline or they may cut across more than one discipline in various Directorates. The key identifying factor is that the outcome relies on the development, adaptation, and utilization of one or more of the capabilities offered by advancement of both research and infrastructure in computation and data, either through cross-cutting or disciplinary programs.

Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport (CBET): includes the use of high performance and emerging computational tools and environments – beyond that supported by core programs – in advancing mathematical modeling, simulation and analysis to describe and analyze with greater fidelity, complexity and scale, engineering processes in chemical, biochemical and biotechnology systems, bioengineering and living systems, sustainable energy and environmental systems, and transport and thermal-fluids systems. Some topics of special interest: 1) Advanced modeling and analysis for water resources, earth systems, built environments, sustainable manufacturing, energy systems, food systems, and regional, national and/or global material flows, 2) Innovative modeling methodologies for turbulent flows and for flows of complex fluids and suspensions, 3) Developing advanced modeling capabilities for thermal fluids and combustion, 4) Extending validated molecular and/or macro-molecular models to the prediction of applications-level engineering problems

The Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) seeks to address gaps in domestic supply chains for key critical materials for clean energy technologies to:
-Enable domestic manufacturing of high energy efficiency and high energy density clean energy technologies;
-Diversify the domestic supply of critical materials; and
-Validate and demonstrate domestic innovative technologies to support the transition to U.S. manufacturing.

This will be accomplished through development of alternative next-generation technologies and field validation and demonstration of technologies that improve extraction, separation and processing. Key critical materials for energy technologies as defined in this FOA include: rare earth elements: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy), terbium (Tb), and samarium (Sm) used in permanent magnets for electric vehicle motors, wind turbine generators and high temperature applications; cobalt (Co) used in batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) and grid storage and high temperature permanent magnets; and lithium (Li), manganese (Mn) and natural graphite used in batteries (see table below). This FOA seeks to leverage the technology and capabilities developed at the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), an Energy Innovation Hub led by Ames Laboratory and managed by DOE.

The ULTIMATE program targets gas turbine applications in the power generation and aviation industries. ULTIMATE aims to develop ultrahigh temperature materials for gas turbines, enabling them to operate continuously at 1300 ºC (2372 ºF) in a stand-alone material test environment—or with coatings, enabling gas turbine inlet temperatures of 1800 ºC (3272 ºF) or higher. The successful materials must be able to withstand not only the highest temperature in a turbine but also the extreme stresses imposed on turbine blades. This program will concurrently develop manufacturing processes for turbine components using these materials, enabling complex geometries that can be seamlessly integrated in the system design. Environmental barrier coatings and thermal barrier coatings are within the scope of this program.

ULTIMATE consists of two separate phases, which may be proposed for a maximum of 18 and 24 months, respectively. In phase I, project teams will demonstrate proof of concept of their alloy compositions, coatings, and manufacturing processes through modeling and laboratory scale tensile coupon (sample) testing of basic properties. In phase II, approved project teams will investigate selected alloy compositions and coatings to evaluate a comprehensive suite of physical, chemical, and mechanical properties as well as produce generic small-scale turbine blades to demonstrate manufacturability.

Projects under this FOA will fall under two different types: (1) Initial Engineering Design for CO2 Capture from Industrial Sources; and (2) Engineering-Scale Testing of Transformational Post-Combustion CO2 Capture Technologies. The first type will be initial engineering studies of carbon capture systems for industrial carbon sources. The second type will test advanced carbon capture materials, processes, or a combination of advanced materials and processes.

Selected projects will support engineering studies of carbon capture systems for industrial sources and testing of advanced carbon capture materials, processes, or a combination of advanced materials and processes for fossil fuel energy plants. They will be required to use actual flue gas at engineering scale either from coal or natural gas fired power systems.

The American-Made Geothermal Manufacturing Prize (Geothermal Prize) is designed to spur innovation and address manufacturing challenges fundamental to operating in harsh geothermal environments. This prize further supports the ability of the geothermal industry to reach the target of 60 GWe of geothermal capacity by 2050  as outlined in the recently released GeoVision study .

As part of the American-Made Challenges series, the Geothermal Prize unites the world’s best-in-class research base with the unparalleled entrepreneurial support system of the American-Made Network. Consisting of pioneering maker spaces, dozens of energy incubators, universities, and 17 DOE National Laboratories, the Network is primed to create a sweeping portfolio of innovations to demonstrate the promise of additive manufacturing.

Prize Stages

Competitors in the Ready!, Set!, Make!, and Geo! Contests participate in four escalating challenges. The contests provide a total of $4.65 million in incentives—$3.25 million in cash prizes, $1 million in vouchers, and $400,000 in field testing costs—to incentivize driving additively manufactured geothermal innovations from concept to prototype testing in two years through an accelerated schedule.

ARPA-E is interested in receiving Full Applications in support of addressing mining industry challenges. The broad objective of this topic is to identify research that supports a robust supply of certain metals and elements in the U.S. via biological-based/bio-augmented processes across the entire mining supply chain including exploration and sensing, mining (extraction), separation, recovery, refining, and recycling.