Washington (Platts)--30Aug2011/502 pm EDT/2102 GMT

A US Department of Energy program aimed at developing breakthrough advanced energy technology is showing progress, with another five energy companies that have received funding under the program attracting a total of $100 million in investment from the private sector, Vice President Joseph Biden said Tuesday.

The original DOE funding came through the agency's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, and totaled $15.5 million for projects ranging from a radically new battery design to a new method for producing biofuels.

"These five companies are swinging for the fences, pioneering new technologies that could help answer the energy challenge and create jobs," Biden said during a speech at the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0 in Las Vegas.

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"They illustrate how a small, but strategic, investment by the federal government can pay big dividends down the road and bring into the market groundbreaking new technologies," he said.

The companies originally received ARPA-E support in 2009 and 2010 under funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The new private funding will go to bringing the technologies to commercialization. In February, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the first six companies under ARPA-E to attract private financing.

In his speech, Biden framed energy technology investment as a fundamental choice between maintaining global leadership or falling behind.

"If we shrink from deciding we want to lead in the area of alternative energy, we will be making the biggest mistake this country has made in its entire history," Biden said.

The companies Biden announced include:

-- Raleigh, North Carolina-based Phononic Devices, which received $11 million for a device that can directly transform waste heat from power plants and vehicles into electricity;

-- Hayward, California-based Primus Power, which received $11 million in private funds for its grid-scale "flow battery," which uses high-energy fluids inside the battery;

-- Boulder, Colorado-based OPX Biotechnologies has attracted $36.5 million for a technology that uses bacteria to convert CO2 into biofuels

-- A Stanford University research project has gotten $25 million for a new type of energy-storage device, and;

-- Goleta, California-based Transphorm has received $25 million in private funding for an innovative semiconductor that can make electric motors more efficient.

--Derek Sands, derek_sands@platts.com