Foro Energy will use ARPA-E funding to develop a thermal-mechanical drilling technology that will increase drilling rates up to 10-fold relative to conventional drilling technologies. This increase in drilling efficiency will result in a significant reduction in drilling costs. If successful, this project could enable the widespread use of geothermal energy and accelerate the shift to renewable energy sources.
The ARPA-E Innovation Summit of 2012 closed to great fanfare this past Wednesday. A number of leading politicians, government officials, philanthropists, venture capitalists, and scientists gathered at the Gaylord Convention Center in the National Harbor, just outside of Washington DC, to see the future energy landscape of the United States and the world. The vision and inspiration provided by the various represented groups paint a bright energy future where environmental concerns and energy demands are not mutually exclusive.
ARPA-E, Advanced Research Projects Administration in Energy, was signed into law by President Bush on the 9th of August 2007 as a part of a comprehensive America COMPETES Act, which was prepared in direct response to the concerns outlined in the Rising Above the Gathering Storm report of the National Academies. The agency received a large portion of its initial funding from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Obama on April 27, 2009. As such, it is a rare example of the bi-partisan understanding for the need to develop and market American innovation and technologies.
According to the official web-site, “ARPA-E focuses exclusively on high risk, high payoff concepts - technologies promising genuine transformation in the ways we generate, store and utilize energy. While the DOE invests heavily in conventional energy research, ARPA-E is not intended to augment these efforts. If just a fraction of the projects funded by ARPA-E are successful in reaching the marketplace, the U.S. will benefit greatly by creating new industries and jobs, making energy technologies substantially more cost-saving and profitable, and accelerating the timeframe for achieving energy and climate goals.”
A number of politicians, representatives of the business community, and philanthropists spoke before a gathering of 3000 on the importance of such innovation. Bill Gates spoke of his involvement in nuclear energy start-ups where the cycle of sourcing – using – disposing of nuclear material is being completed; President Bill Clinton spoke of his involvement in increasing building efficiencies around the country; and various business leaders touted their reasons for why tech development is necessary, covering the spectrum from jobs and growth in sustainable manufacturing to utilization of armed conflict to secure oil.
Four grantees were highlighted at the Summit:
Foro Energy (www.foroenergy.com) Geothermal energy is a potentially vast source of carbon-free electricity generation in the U.S. To date, the use of geothermal energy has been hindered by the difficulty in penetrating ultra-hard crystalline basement rocks. Conventional drill bits penetrate these rocks slowly and wear down quickly. As a result, drilling is slow and expensive. Foro Energy will use ARPA-E funding to develop a thermal-mechanical drilling technology that will increase drilling rates up to 10-fold relative to conventional drilling technologies. This increase in drilling efficiency will result in a significant reduction in drilling costs. If successful, this project could enable the widespread use of geothermal energy and accelerate the shift to renewable energy sources.
All of these technologies will create American jobs and foster a dawn of a new American Century through continued innovation, exploration, and development. It is a proven formula that builds confidence in the ability of government, venture capital, academia, and industry to unite in an effort to find solutions to our problems and in doing so determining our destiny.
