The government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), a unit of the Energy Department, has awarded $3.8 million to United Technologies Corp.’s (NYSE: UTX) Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne unit, $2.7 million to the same company’s Research Center, and $4.1 million to General Electric (NYSE: GE) Global Research.
These grants are awarded to further research into alternative fuels, other developments in power storage and transmission, and electric vehicles.
ARPA-E will award $130 million altogether, spread out over 66 projects.
From Businessweek:
The program’s goal is to “support development of the most innovative technologies and change what’s possible for America’s energy future,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said today in a statement.
The Rocketdyne unit is constructing a system to improve the conversion of natural gas to liquids, while United Technologies’ Research Center will use its grant to work on reducing rare-earth materials in EV motor manufacturing. GE, meanwhile, will apply its award toward “a new electrical power switching technology for high-voltage transmission lines,” as Businessweek reports.
ARPA-E has a total of 285 projects in its portfolio by now, with $770 million in awards. The major recipients are universities (47 percent), small businesses (29 percent), large businesses (15 percent), national labs (7.5 percent), and non-profits (1.5 percent).
