By Liz Enbysk

SGN Managing Editor

From where we sit, it's hard to argue with the mission of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, which was created with Recovery Act funds to, among other things:

·         Bring a freshness, excitement, and sense of mission to energy research that will attract many of the U.S.’s best and brightest minds—those of experienced scientists and engineers, and, especially, those of students and young researchers, including persons in the entrepreneurial world

·         Focus on creative “out-of-the-box” transformational energy research that industry by itself cannot or will not support due to its high risk but where success would provide dramatic benefits for the nation

So what's the word at ARPA-E this week? Here's a quick recap of some of the comments and coverage that caught our eye:

·         Bill Gates: The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, who is also a member of the American Energy Innovation Council, didn't hold back. "It's crazy how little we're funding energy," he said, noting the risk is that we won't see the needed energy breakthroughs. Read more from Time >>

·         Fred Smith: The CEO of FedEx is clearly a fan of ARPA-E. "Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, activity for activity, it is hard to find a thing the United States has done that is more effective than ARPA-E,” he told the summit. Read more at greentechmedia >>

·         Bill Clinton: The former President, urging even more investment in ARPA-E to make the agency the Bell Labs of energy said, "Our economic future is not threatened by success of energy innovation, but rather depends on it." Read more at earth2tech >>

We also found some visuals we thought might interest you:

·         CNet has a photo gallery showing some of the inventions from startups and research organizations on display at the summit

·         A DOE video tells the story of General Compression, a Massachusetts firm that received a $750,000 ARPA-E award to develop a technology that has the ability to store renewable energy for use at any location on the electric grid.