The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, ARPA-E, sponsored a technology summit here this week designed to bring together energy entrepreneurs, utilities, technology companies like Applied Materials Inc., venture capitalists and policy makers to forge a technology strategy. Agency officials said they hoped the summit would serve as a starting point for jump-starting the nascent U.S. energy technology sector as a way to end dependence on foreign oil and create new, high-tech jobs.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced during the summit that ARPA-E has released $100 million in U.S. economic stimulus funding for a third round of technology development. The funding round will support research projects focusing on grid storage, power converters and cooling systems for buildings, Chu said Tuesday (March 2).

"This is about unleashing the American innovation machine to solve the energy and climate challenge, while creating new jobs, new industries and new exports for America's workers," Chu said.

See details of the latest ARPA-E solicitation here. Concept papers must be submitted by April 2, the agency said.

The summit also showcased 37 energy research projects selected in the agency's first round of funding early last year. That funding round totaled $150 million. A second funding round announced in December focuses on research on electric vehicle batteries, biofuels and carbon capture technologies.

The creation of ARPA-E was a key recommendation of an influential 2007 report on the future of U.S. economic competitiveness prepared by the National Academy of Science. Norman Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp. and chairman of the competitiveness panel, told this week's summit that energy innovation remains critical to U.S. competitiveness. ARPA-E aims to create an "innovation ecosphere" that is overseen by technical managers "with the ability to see around corners," Augustine said.

Arun Majumdar, a University of California-Berkeley engineering professor and associate director for energy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory took over as ARPA-E's director last September.

The agency's chief task will be ushering good ideas "across the Valley of Death," Augustine said, a reference to the grueling process of taking energy R&D projects from the laboratory, through financing rounds and eventually to the commercial market.

John Doerr, partner in the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Beyers, told the summit that the initial challenge for energy innovators will be using the nation's existing infrastructure to bring disruptive technologies to the energy market.

Doerr, whose VC firm is investing heavily in energy startups, estimates that the energy technology market is several times larger than the $1 trillion IT market, mainly because "everyone uses electricity."

"We have to figure out a way to get the utilities engaged," Doerr said, because "they are not now."

Desh Deshpande, co-founder of Sycamore Networks and chairman and of lithium-ion battery developer A123 Systems Inc., said energy entrepreneurs should initially focus innovation efforts on core technologies and manufacturing processes. While traditional technology innovation has focused on patenting technologies and then seeking product applications, Deshpande said the new energy innovation paradigm requires that product development teams be in place as soon as startups apply for patent protection.