Energy Summit Comes to Gaylord Convention Center This Week

WASHINGTON — The annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit and technology showcase is coming to the Gaylord National Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, later this week.

The three-day event, now in its 13th year, is being held March 22-24. 

The aim of the summit is to bring together experts from different technical disciplines and professional communities to think about America’s energy challenges and begin to hash out ways to address them in new and innovative ways.

It also often serves as a launching pad for taking transformational energy technologies out of the lab and bringing them to market.

“ARPA-E is our moonshot factory,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a YouTube video inviting energy innovators and experts, as well as local government leaders, to attend this year’s event.

Granholm said attendees, which include many startups, are typically involved in “mind-blowing projects” ranging from new battery chemistries to creating a wood product that’s stronger than steel and making fuel out of seaweed.

In addition, the energy secretary said the three-day event will be “packed with speakers and networking and over 400 exhibitors showing cutting-edge clean technologies.”

In addition to Granholm, this year’s speakers will include John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation, Alicia Knapp, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables, ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Donet Graves Jr., Arun Majumdar, dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Fredrick P. Rose director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowsky, R-Alaska.

For those who don’t know, “ARPA-E” stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a Department of Energy program that works to advance high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. 

According to Granholm and other department officials, attendees at the annual conference get to experience first-hand the latest technological advancements across a wide variety of energy sectors; attend practical seminars about how to accelerate cutting-edge technologies on a path toward commercialization; network with breakthrough technology companies, federal government leaders, entrepreneurs, and researchers who are ready to collaborate, and meet influential government, research lab, and private-sector leaders and learn about partnerships and funding opportunities.

For additional information on the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit, including the full Summit agenda, visit http://www.arpae-summit.com. 

Dan can be reached at dan@thewellnews.com and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue