Transportation may account for one of the largest shares of greenhouse gases, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, but “that means we get to be one of the biggest parts of the solution. And that calls for both urgent, immediate action using the tools that we have and long-term, strategic visions that allow us to prepare for changes that will unfold over time.”

Buttigieg was speaking at the opening session on the second day of the Department of Energy’s virtual ARPA-E Innovation Summit, where he and other industry leaders made the case for both current and visionary technologies, as well as putting forward strong bipartisan arguments for clean energy.

“We also believe in pushing the boundaries a little bit on what infrastructure means because ironically that’s actually a very traditional thing to do,” Buttigieg said. “The Erie Canal, the transcontinental railroad, the interstate highway system itself: None of those things were traditional until we built them. They became traditional because we built them.”

Launched in 2009, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has funded research and development for more than 1,000 cutting-edge clean energy projects across the U.S., drawing in $4.9 billion of private investment and launching 88 companies, according to information on the agency’s website.

Talking with Kara Hurst, vice president and head of worldwide sustainability at Amazon, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., stayed on message, promoting President Biden’s infrastructure package, the American Jobs Plan, while adding in some of his own insights.

Rather than only looking at the downside of climate change, Buttigieg said, it’s also important to think about “what happens if we succeed. It’s in transportation, particularly, that we can prove the president’s point that the old climate-versus-jobs framework is a false choice; that actually job creation, economic opportunity are the results of good climate action.”

Looking ahead, Buttigieg said his department is looking at innovation in “alternate fuels like hydrogen and fuel economy improvements like power train optimization algorithms that actually, whatever your fuel source, could improve efficiency. … Then there’s the conceptual innovations — mobility as a service [and] helping travelers adapt their mode and timing and route in ways that makes sense.”

Sidewalk Data Centers

Jessica O. Matthews’ vision for the smart city of the future is built from the sidewalk up, with “smart pavers” installed under pedestrian walkways that can integrate “last mile” energy, communications and other infrastructure to ensure system reliability.

“This is a massive global problem,” said Matthews, founder and CEO of Uncharted Power. “While it is true that the number of people living without access to any type of electricity has steadily gone down, the number of people living without access to reliable, resilient energy services consistently is going up.”

The technologies to provide reliable power exist, but they “are not very good at interoperating with each other,” Matthews said. “And this lack of interoperability makes it difficult to capture, share and analyze data across different technologies in the built environment, especially at that last mile of infrastructure.”

One of clean energy’s high-profile black female entrepreneurs, Matthews started Uncharted about 10 years ago and has successfully raised millions of dollars of private investment for the company. The company’s smart pavers essentially “transform the sidewalk into a data center,” according to a company video played at the summit. “What that means is we’re taking the ground, which is a city’s most underutilized asset, and we’re turning it into a wireless, mesh network of power, communications and computability.”

“Infrastructure edge computing becomes the foundation for next-generation internet and the way to fix the last mile, that tricky part of infrastructure service delivery that’s been plaguing us as a society,” Matthews said. “It’s our goal to empower local government to use their assets, both physical and digital to bridge the gap between the world they want for their citizens and the world that currently exists.”

The company is working on a pilot project in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Different Motivations, Common Goals

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy acknowledged being the odd man out at the summit, a Republican leading a red state heavily dependent on fossil fuels. But he sees clean energy innovation as critical to “cut our second-highest-in-the-nation energy costs” by harnessing Alaska’s abundant wind, tidal power and sunlight from its long summer days.

“That’s why I am here today. Our motivations may differ, but our destinations are aligned,” he told the ARPA-E audience. “A lack of access to inexpensive clean power is a death sentence for any economy. … If you can provide the investment, we can provide the world-class locations, aggressive permitting and local support.”

Dunleavy also pointed to successful renewable development in the state, such as the close to 100% mix of hydro, wind and battery storage power that provides electricity for Kodiak Island’s more than 12,000 residents. The small tribal village of Igiugig has also piloted an underwater turbine producing enough power to cut its need for diesel generation in half, he said.

Technology and Market Evolution

Vistra CEO Curt Morgan provided insights for innovators on developing technologies for the competitive retail power markets that, he said, serve approximately two-thirds of the nation’s electricity demand.

“We have three core principles in assessing [technology] development opportunities,” Morgan said. “They [must] support the affordability, reliability and lower emissions levels of the electric grid. All three of these are very important, and we have to ensure that they stay in balance. Furthermore, we assess the various methods to commercialize the product, including what it brings in the perspective of cost effectiveness, durability, reliability and unique characteristics, and supports the direction of the grid and consumer needs and desires.

Technology will drive change in market and regulatory structures but also will have to adapt to such changes, he said.

“We believe more and more value will exist beyond the core energy provided,” Morgan said. “In fact, the proliferation of intermittent renewables [will] ultimately drive the price of electricity power markets [to] very low levels, given the marginal cost of these resources is essentially zero.

“Competitive markets must continue to evolve to assess properly and compensate resources based on specific needs in the marketplace; and for grid reliability and balancing with intermittent resources, not a single price for all attributes. These payments for attributes will become the primary revenue source for power generation in the future market,” he said.