In an interview, Toone, who took over from ARPA-E’s first director Arun Majumdar, says his main priority as principal deputy director is to bring in the top-notch research scientists ARPA-E has become known for. Those program directors oversee the progress of grant awardees, which could be businesses, universities, or national laboratories. ARPA-E projects are designed to bring a scientific advance closer to the marketplace by producing a first prototype or demonstration within a few years. Like the Department of Defense's DARPA agency, ARPA-E programs are stopped if the research team isn’t meeting technical and commercial milestones.
In the months ahead, ARPA-E plans on forming research programs in areas where the private sector isn’t already working and there’s the potential for a big jump in performance, says Toone, who is also a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Duke University. Program ideas now being discussed include:
Fast charging for electric vehicles. Battery technology is improving and high-voltage direct-current charging stations can get an electric car’s batteries to about 50 percent charge in a half an hour. But technologies to make EV charging as fast as filling up with gasoline isView the Original article
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