The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy will aggregate as much as $60 million to fund two technology research and development programs that aim to facilitate energy conservation in vehicles and carbon dioxide storage in plants.“We must continue to invest in programs that encourage the scientific community to think boldly and differently about our nation’s energy future,” ARPA-E Director Ellen Williams said Tuesday.
According to the Energy Department, the NEXT-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated on-Road vehicles initiative seeks to develop connectivity and automation systems that can help reduce energy consumption of vehicles by at least 20 percent.
DOE added the Rhizosphere Observations Optimizing Terrestrial Sequestration program aims to explore new methods for crop breeding, carbon capture, water productivity and fertilizer efficiency management.
The project will focus on developing technology to measure plant root and soil functions as well as predictive models to accelerate growth of plants based on certain soil and root traits.
