It’s well known that the race is on to create viable sources of alternative-energy and a serious player in this sphere is the U.S. military.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – the Defense Dept. agency that helped invent the Internet – is setting its sights on cleantech by trying to change how both the military and civilian worlds consume and produce energy. DARPA is devoting an estimated $100 million of its $3 billion annual budget to alternative energy.
In addition to spurring the development of palm-size fuel cells, DARPA has contracted with companies to miniaturize solar cells that would supplant the need for generators. It now wants to develop inexpensive diesel and jet fuel from algae that could be produced in the battle zone. All three programs aim to accelerate the production of new products by private companies, from whom the military could buy.
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