DISRUPTIVE DC CONVERTERS FOR GRID RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE TO DELIVER SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SBIR/STTR (DC-GRIDS SBIR/STTR)

NOFO Number: DE-FOA-0003500 - DISRUPTIVE DC CONVERTERS FOR GRID RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE TO DELIVER SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SBIR/STTR To obtain a copy of the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) please go to ARPA-E eXCHANGE at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. To apply to this NOFO, Applicants must register with and submit application materials through ARPA-E eXCHANGE (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Registration.aspx). For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx). ARPA-E will not review or consider application materials submitted through other means. For problems with ARPA-E eXCHANGE, email ExchangeHelp@hq.doe.gov (with NOFO name and number in the subject line). Questions about this NOFO? Check the Frequently Asked Questions available at http://arpa-e.energy.gov/faq. For questions that have not already been answered, email ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov. Agency Overview: The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), an organization within the Department of Energy (DOE), is chartered by Congress in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-69), as amended by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358), as further amended by the Energy Act of 2020 (P.L. 116-260): “(A) to enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that— (i) reduce imports of energy from foreign sources; (ii) reduce energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; (iii) improve the energy efficiency of all economic sectors; (iv) provide transformative solutions to improve the management, clean-up, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel; and (v) improve the resilience, reliability, and security of infrastructure to produce, deliver, and store energy; and (B) to ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.” ARPA-E issues this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) under its authorizing statute codified at 42 U.S.C. § 16538. The NOFO and any cooperative agreements or grants made under this NOFO are subject to 2 C.F.R. Part 200 as supplemented by 2 C.F.R. Part 910. ARPA-E funds research on, and the development of, transformative science and technology solutions to address the energy and environmental missions of the Department. The agency focuses on technologies that can be meaningfully advanced with a modest investment over a defined period of time in order to catalyze the translation from scientific discovery to early-stage technology. For the latest news and information about ARPA-E, its programs and the research projects currently supported, see: http://arpa-e.energy.gov/. ARPA-E funds transformational research. Existing energy technologies generally progress on established “learning curves” where refinements to a technology and the economies of scale that accrue as manufacturing and distribution develop drive improvements to the cost/performance metric in a gradual fashion. This continual improvement of a technology is important to its increased commercial deployment and is appropriately the focus of the private sector or the applied technology offices within DOE. In contrast, ARPA-E supports transformative research that has the potential to create fundamentally new learning curves. ARPA-E technology projects typically start with cost/performance estimates well above the level of an incumbent technology. Given the high risk inherent in these projects, many will fail to progress, but some may succeed in generating a new learning curve with a projected cost/performance metric that is significantly better than that of the incumbent technology. ARPA-E will provide support at the highest funding level only for submissions with significant technology risk, aggressive timetables, and careful management and mitigation of the associated risks. ARPA-E funds technology with the potential to be disruptive in the marketplace. The mere creation of a new learning curve does not ensure market penetration. Rather, the ultimate value of a technology is determined by the marketplace, and impactful technologies ultimately become disruptive – that is, they are widely adopted and displace existing technologies from the marketplace or create entirely new markets. ARPA-E understands that definitive proof of market disruption takes time, particularly for energy technologies. Therefore, ARPA-E funds the development of technologies that, if technically successful, have clear disruptive potential, e.g., by demonstrating capability for manufacturing at competitive cost and deployment at scale. ARPA-E funds applied research and development (R&D). The Office of Management and Budget defines “applied research” as an “original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge…directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective” and defines “experimental development” as “creative and systematic work, drawing on knowledge gained from research and practical experience, which is directed at producing new products or processes or improving existing products or processes.” Applicants interested in receiving financial assistance for basic research (defined by the Office of Management and Budget as “experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts”) should contact the DOE’s Office of Science (http://science.energy.gov/). Office of Science national scientific user facilities (http://science.energy.gov/user-facilities/) are open to all researchers, including ARPA-E Applicants and awardees. These facilities provide advanced tools of modern science including accelerators, colliders, supercomputers, light sources and neutron sources, as well as facilities for studying the nanoworld, the environment, and the atmosphere. Projects focused on early-stage R&D for the improvement of technology along defined roadmaps may be more appropriate for support through the DOE applied energy offices including: the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (http://www.eere.energy.gov/), the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (https://www.energy.gov/fecm/office-fossil-energy-and-carbon-management), the Office of Nuclear Energy (http://www.energy.gov/ne/office-nuclear-energy), and the Office of Electricity (https://www.energy.gov/oe/office-electricity). ARPA-E encourages submissions stemming from ideas that still require proof-of-concept R&D efforts as well as those for which some proof-of-concept demonstration already exists. Submissions can propose a project with the end deliverable being an extremely creative, but partial solution. Program Overview: 1.SUMMARY The Disruptive dc Converters for Grid Resilient Infrastructure to Deliver Sustainable energy (DC-GRIDS) program will target transformative technologies that enable a multi-terminal high-voltage direct current (MT-HVDC) transmission macrogrid. It will enable multi-directional power routing, flexible interconnections between existing and new alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) lines, and the easier addition of sustainable energy sources. Furthermore, a MT-HVDC macrogrid would accelerate adoption of offshore power transmission, conversion of high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) corridors to HVDC, and interconnection of the three U.S. electrical grids. This program seeks to enable the rapid expansion of existing grid capacity, while improving resiliency and performance. 2.BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION HVDC lines transport electrical power more efficiently than HVAC lines over long distances, particularly in underground or subsea applications, and may allow for 3.5 times the capacity of existing HVAC rights-of-way. However, there are several barriers to wider HVDC adoption, including: •A lack of understanding regarding the interaction of HVDC and the surrounding HVAC system; •An absence of domestic supply chains and availability of HVDC equipment; •High terminal equipment and installation costs; •Insufficient standardization among vendors; •Large footprints and volumes (which are a driver of higher costs); and •A lack of coordinated system-level controls validated with mature modeling and simulation methods. , Despite the noted barriers, there are several HVDC back-to-back converter stations linking the U.S. Eastern, Western, and Texas interconnections that allow small amounts of power to flow between them. There are also a few isolated point-to-point HVDC lines that transmit hydropower-generated electricity from the Pacific Northwest to Southern California and from Québec to New England, with several more in development. HVDC is widely used in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world to efficiently move gigawatts (GW) of electric power subsea or over long distances. Offshore wind, solar photovoltaics, and new nuclear power have the largest potential impact in meeting the U.S. goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The U.S. is expected to invest around $65 billion in offshore wind by the end of the decade, with capacity ramping up to around 14 GW by 2030, 30 GW by 2033, and 40 GW by 2035. , This will help meet surging electricity demand from data centers, manufacturing, and electrified transportation. Electricity demand from information technology equipment in U.S. data centers alone is expected to increase from 21 GW in 2023 to more than 50 GW by 2030. The power grid is the backbone of the U.S. electricity sector, and it must adapt to achieve these increased capacity requirements while maintaining reliability and resiliency. To meet the need for a cost-competitive HVDC electric grid, the DOE established the HVDC COst REduction (CORE) initiative. CORE supports R&D to reduce annual levelized cost for HVDC converter stations by 35% by 2035 to $210 per megawatt (MW) per kilovolt (kV). DC-GRIDS will develop disruptive DC converter station technology to enable true multi-port MT-HVDC converter stations. This will lead to MT-HVDC stations being cost-comparable with AC substations, increased system resiliency, and reduced deployment times through the use of existing infrastructure. Since its inception in 2009, ARPA-E has been a catalyst for breakthroughs in the domain of power electronics, launching the following programs in the past decade: •Green Electricity Network Integration (GENI); •Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology (ADEPT); •Creating Innovative and Reliable Circuits Using Inventive Topologies and Semiconductors (CIRCUITS); •Building Reliable Electronics to Achieve Kilovolt Effective Ratings Safely (BREAKERS); and •Unlocking Lasting Transformative Resiliency Advances by Faster Actuation of power Semiconductor Technologies (ULTRAFAST). The agency has invested more than $300 million, enabling significant technological progress and subsequent commercialization in power electronics and supporting U.S. technological leadership in advanced power conversion technologies. The goals of this NOFO are complemented by previous and current program activities at ARPA-E. The scope of this program, however, is distinct in that it addresses new challenges related to high-voltage power electronics for HVDC not previously supported by ARPA-E. Some of the distinctive elements are the design of power electronics modular valves that stack up to more than half a million volts with kiloampere-level currents, environmentally friendly approaches to gas/liquid/solid insulation for power electronics, and high frequency galvanic isolation methods. To view the NOFO in its entirety, please visit https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov.

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