Startup Funding Alert: $10 Million for Hydrokinetic Turbines
Up to $10 Million dollars (per award) is available for startups working on new designs for economically attractive Hydrokinetic Turbines (HKT) for tidal and riverine currents.
How does this funding work?
ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) expects to issue $38 million for new awards, to be shared between FOA (Funding Opportunity Announcement) codes DE-FOA-0002334 and DE-FOA-0002335. ARPA-E anticipates issuing 8–12 awards combined under these two FOAs. ARPA-E may, at its discretion, issue one, multiple, or no awards.
Individual awards may vary between $250,000 and $10 million.
The period of performance may not exceed 36 months. ARPA-E expects the start date for funding agreements to be February 2021, or as negotiated.
ARPA-E encourages submissions stemming from ideas that still require proof-of-concept R&D efforts, as well as those for which proof-of-concept already exists.
What is ARPA-E?
ARPA-E — the Advanced Research Projects Agency — is a department of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)modeled after the successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the agency credited with such innovations as GPS, the stealth fighter, and computer networking.
This agency is hyper-relevant to deep tech startups working on innovations related to energy.
Why hydrokinetics?
Hydrokinetic technologies produce renewable electricity by harnessing the kinetic energy of a body of water, the energy that results from its motion. Since water is 832 times denser than air, our tides, waves, ocean currents, and free-flowing rivers represent an untapped, powerful, highly-concentrated and clean energy resource. Estimates suggest that the amount of energy that could feasibly be captured from US waves, tides, and river currents is enough to power over 67 million homes. Based on current project proposals, experts predict that the country could be producing 13,000 MW of power from hydrokinetic energy by 2025. This level of development is equivalent to displacing 22 new dirty coal-fired power plants, avoiding the annual emission of nearly 86 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, as well as other harmful pollutants like mercury and particulate matter. The avoided carbon emissions in 2025 would be equivalent to taking 15.6 million cars off the road. Read more about hydrokinetic technology here.
Get started
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