Or maybe you can.

For the first time, the US Department of Energy (DOE) is using a social media strategy similar to Facebook’s “like” button to let website visitors choose which startup companies they think have the best chance of becoming “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator.” Between now and the morning of Monday, Feb. 6, people who visit the DOE’s Energy Innovator page can pick one or more companies they’d like to see go to the agency’s annual ARPA-E Innovation Summit, which brings together entrepreneurs, researchers, government officials and investors to share ideas and promote development of new energy technologies.

This year’s ARPA-E Summit is set to be held in Washington, DC, from Feb. 27 – 29.

The innovators being put to online voting include:

• 7AC Technologies, which has developed a liquid dessicant system for more energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units;
• Borla Performance Industries, whose technology can recover clean water from engine exhaust;
• California Lithium Battery, whose design for a low-cost, advanced lithium-ion battery could deliver improved battery life;
• Element One, which develops color-changing coatings to detect leaks of hydrogen and other hazardous gases;
• Integrated Dynamic Electron Solutions, whose technology enables imaging of nanoscale objects at “unprecedented time scales and frame rates”;
• Iowa Powder Atomization Technologies, which is working on a titanium powder-making process that’s 10 times more efficient than that used today;
• SH Coatings, which has created a coating to prevent ice accumulation on power lines;
• SynchroPET, which has developed an advanced PET scanner for biotech applications;
• Technikem, which makes an eco-friendly blend of chemicals for stripping paints and adhesives;
• TrakLok, which has designed “smart boxes” for electronic tracking of cargo containers in transit;
• Umpqua Energy, whose system lets a gasoline engine operate in “extreme lean burn mode”;
• US e-Chromic, which is developing a window film that can reflect sunlight on demand for greater energy efficiency;
• Vorbeck Materials, which created a new method for improving the performance of lithium-ion batteries; and
• Woodmont Enterprises, which makes a mold-resistant engineered wood product.

And that’s exactly the problem many business executives are reporting these days.

A whopping 88 percent of them say they’re finding it hard to access venture capital, private investment and government funding that could support innovation. And 77 percent say their companies have developed much less appetite for risk lately.

Those findings are part of GE’s second annual “Global Innovation Barometer,” which surveyed nearly 3,000 senior executives in 22 countries.

“Innovation is a powerful lever to address the challenges of a growing world,” said Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of GE. “It allows us to use resources more efficiently, produce more with less and deliver better technologies to help markets drive economic growth and better quality of life.”

All those benefits have become harder to come by in the current climate, she added.

“This year’s study confirms a lot of what we’ve been seeing in the global marketplace, that the uncertainties inherent in today’s economic environment are challenging business’ ability to innovate,” Comstock said.

The biggest complaint among executives questioned for the study related to what governments around the world are doing — or, rather, not doing — to support innovation in business.

“Investing in innovation is a critical piece of global competitiveness and it comes in many forms — from traditional R&D to new products, markets and business models,” Comstock said. “Cutbacks today will have reverberations on economic and social progress for years to come, and may seriously hinder a company’s ability to compete. Governments and businesses both need to do their part to shore up the fragile innovation ecosystem.”

Engineering researchers at New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have proved otherwise by finding a quick and inexpensive way to make nanomaterials that could be used in super-efficient, solid-state refrigerators and cooling systems with no moving parts. How? By cooking those materials in a $40 microwave oven.

The key to such advanced refrigeration technologies are thermoelectric materials, which can convert electricity into a range of temperatures, from hot to cold. Those types of refrigerators do exist today, but they’re small, inefficient and depend on costly materials that are hard to produce in bulk.

Researchers at Rensselaer, though, have found they can “cook” those materials relatively quickly and cheaply in an ordinary microwave.

By mixing the right nanomaterials with the tiniest pinch of sulfur and microwaving them for a few minutes, engineers have been able to produce thermoelectric materials that are better than those available today. Their “kitchen-nuked” materials are also faster, easier and cheaper to make than any currently on the market.

“This is not a one-off discovery,” said Rensselaer professor Ganpati Ramanath, who conducted the experiments with colleagues Theodorian Borca-Tasciuc and Richard W. Siegel. “Our findings truly hold the potential to transform the technology landscape of refrigeration and make a real impact on our lives.”

Borca-Tasciuc added, “Our ability to scalably and inexpensively produce (these materials) paves the way to the fabrication of high-efficiency cooling devices, as well as solid-state thermoelectric devices for harvesting waste heat or solar heat into electricity.”

And now GE’s gone ahead and printed a three-dimensional ornament for its Christmas tree. Inspired by the design of a GE jet engine, the ornament isn’t likely to pose a threat to the demand for more traditional decor like Santas and snowflakes. And, considering the printing process takes 10 hours or so, we’re probably not going to be using this technique anytime soon to replace that favorite glass ball that slips out of our hands and splinters on the floor while trimming the tree.

Still, it is a pretty cool demonstration of what’s becoming possible in 3D printing. What’s next? Printed Christmas trees?

In all, three dozen companies are competing in the first-of-its-kind challenge by the DOE. Members of the public will be able to vote for their favorites starting in mid-January, and — following an expert review — the top innovators will be named at next year’s ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.

For now, the Energy Department is offering a sneak preview at five of the would-be top innovators. They include:

• Maryland-based Vorbeck Materials, which is using a method developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to create a material that could help lithium-ion batteries store twice as much electricity at high charge and discharge rates as current technology. The innovation could also increase battery capacities and life cycles.
• TrakLok, a Tennessee company that’s using GPS technology and satellite communications as part of its tracking and warning capability and international container locking technology. The innovation, first developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, could help to protect against container tampering, theft, vandalism and smuggling.
• Iowa-based IPAT, which is working on gas atomization technology for lower-cost, more efficient titanium powder-making. Developed at Ames Laboratory, the improved method could be used to create components for artificial limbs, biomedical implants, aerospace fasteners and other equipment. Improving ways to work with titanium powder is important because liquid titanium tends to react with the materials used to form molds.
• e-Chromic of Boulder, Colorado, which is working with electrochromic technology developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to create a new thi- film window material that reflects sunlight on demand.
• Oregon-based Umpqua Energy, which is developing a system that lets a gasoline engine operate in an “extreme lean burn mode” for improved gas mileage. The technology was first developed at Argonne National Laboratory.

“How do you clean your laundry in space?”

Turns out, for now, the answer is, “You don’t.” As NASA explains here, astronauts on board the International Space Station wear their clothes for as long as they can, eventually stuffing their dirty undies into a non-reusable spacecraft that’s “de-orbited” (ie, sent down into Earth’s atmosphere to burn up meteor-like over the oceans).

In the future, though, space-travelers might have less odoriferous options. UMPQUA Research Company, an Oregon-based organization, wants to develop an advanced, water-efficient washer-dryer combo that can work in space. The firm previously developed a single-phase laundry system that “facilitated microgravity compatible fluidics and eliminated problems associated with foams.” It aims to make its new appliance require even less water and energy … both especially precious resources when you’re stuck a few hundred kilometers above Earth for months at a time.

As with so many other space-related innovations, the new technology could prove plenty useful on Terra Firma as well. UMPQUA notes the low-gravity washer-dryer “has potential utility in any application where long term habitation in coupled with limited access.”

“Some obvious examples include isolated military outposts, research stations, naval vessels, research vessels, and commercial ships. Each of these installations feature similar restrictions on available clean water, energy, and waste storage. The ability to wash and reuse clothing with equipment that consumes small amounts of these valuable resources will reduce resupply requirements and improve quality of life. “

Inaugurated this week, the center is located at Alstom’s North American hydro headquarters in the Quebec town of Sorel-Tracy. It’s designed to serve as the company’s global hub for innovation in hydro retrofit processes and technology.

“Many Alstom customers in North America and Europe own hydro facilities that have been operating continuously for 30 years or more, such as some of those in the territory of James Bay,” said Maryse François-Xausa, Alstom’s vice president for Global Hydro R&D and Product Management. “These plants are a source of clean, reliable energy, but many need to be retrofitted and are opportunities for increases in efficiency/capacity. This new GTC is here to ensure those plants continue operating smoothly while making the largest possible contribution to a balanced portfolio of low and no-carbon energy sources.”

The Sorel-Tracy GTC houses a team of Alstom research experts and engineers working with industry and academic partners to study improvements in retrofit techniques that can significantly improve plant performance, availability and reliability without increasing overall plant size or environmental impact. During a retrofit, existing turbines, generators and other essential equipment are removed from a hydro plant. They are then renewed to boost efficiency or replaced with new designs resulting in an overall increase in electricity output.

In the world of hydroelectric technologies, Alstom certainly qualifies as a superpower, with its turbines, generators and equipment accounting for around 25 percent of the world’s hydropower output. The company also operates several other hydro-focused GTCs, including a high-tech, scale-model test laboratory in Grenoble, France; the Pelton turbine-testing centre in Vadodara, India; and a generator-focused GTC in Birr, Switzerland.

If comic-book air-traffic controllers never had trouble distinguishing Superman from passing planes, the same hasn’t held true in real life. In fact, military and air-safety concerns over potential confusion between planes and wind turbines has proved to be a major hurdle to the development of wind energy.

In the UK alone, nearly two-thirds of all wind-farm applications — a full 6.5 gigawatts’ worth — are being delayed because of such concerns, according to product development specialist Cambridge Consultants. But an innovative new technology could soon change all that.

A 3D holographic radar system can identify and track even small planes flying over a farm full of large, spinning wind turbines, according to Cambridge Consultants, which developed the technology and is spinning out a new company called Aveillant to market the product. The system is billed as being able to provide “a level of accuracy that will assure safe separation of aircraft and turbine in the most demanding airspace.”

“The unique radar offering is a result of our extensive work with aviation and wind energy stakeholders to create a technical solution which fully meets their requirements,” said Ray Edgson, ventures director at Cambridge Consultants.

The company worked with everyone from wind-farm developers and airport operators to Britain’s Ministry of Defense and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to develop the new radar technology. It says the result is a system that not only meets both civil and defense aviation requirements, but will be affordable even for smaller wind farms.

Currently, wind turbines in motion can mimic aircraft on an air traffic controller’s radar screen. Other fixes have been tried, but they often require a compromise in either radar coverage, sensitivity or accuracy. Aveillant’s proprietary 3D holographic radar, however, has been shown in tests to resolve those issues. Small-scale trials in 2009 led the Ministry of Defense to back the technology in a proposal to DECC’s Aviation Advisory panel. A year later, the government’s Aviation Management Board chose the technology as its leading radar in-fill solution.

Aveillant will receive startup financing through a consortium that includes Cambridge Consultants, venture capital firm DFJ Esprit the Aviation Investment Fund Company, a funding body set up by the wind industry to address aviation concerns related to wind energy development.

That’s what BrightSource Energy, a solar thermal technology company, is doing.  And not just for any oil drilling project, but for the largest enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project in the world.

The project got under way this week in Coalinga, California.  Built for Chevron Technology Ventures, the 29-megawatt-thermal “solar-to-steam” facility will use BrightSource’s proprietary technology to convert sun energy into high-temperature and high-pressure steam for EOR.

The BrightSource technology features 3,822 heliostats, each made of two 10×7-foot mirrors mounted to a six-foot steel pole. The mirrors are focused on a boiler on top of a 327-foot-tall solar tower. The boiler produces steam that is then pumped deep into the sub-surface oil reservoir to heat the area. That increases the pressure of the reservoir and reduces the viscosity of the oil, making it easier to bring to the surface. To conserve water use, the steam is then cooled and recirculated in a closed-loop system.

One of the oldest oil fields in the US, Chevron’s Coalinga site began operations in the 1890s. Because the field’s heavy crude does not flow readily, steam is injected into reservoirs to heat the crude, making it easier to bring to the surface. Steam at the field has traditionally been generated by burning natural gas.

“The energy intensity associated with extracting heavy-oil is extremely high,” said Paul Markwell, senior director of upstream research with IHS CERA. “Many of the known heavy-oil reserves around the world have limited access to cost-effective fuel sources and are located in areas with high solar resources. This provides an ideal environment for the use of solar thermal technologies for enhanced oil recovery.”

The funds, allocated in the department’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget, are all focused on supporting innovations in clean technology.

“It is now more important than ever to invest in game-changing ideas that will build the technological infrastructure for a new, clean energy economy,” said Arun Majumdar, director of ARPA-E.

The 60 projects set for funding in the coming budget year are spread across 25 states, with 50 percent led by universities, 23 percent by small businesses, 12 percent by large businesses, 13 percent by national labs, and 2 percent by non-profits. In total, ARPA-E has so far supported 180 projects in 12 program areas with $521.7 million in awards.

Among the latest research efforts to receive funding are:

• HybriSol (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $2.9 million) – MIT is working to develop a “heat battery” that can capture and store sun energy to be fed into the electricity grid at a later time. “If successful, this heat battery could have an unprecedented impact on efforts to decrease fossil fuel consumption and emissions, enabling clean solar energy to be accessible 24 hours a day,” according to ARPA-E.
• Turpentine fuel from pine trees (University of Florida, $6.3 million) -  Part of the ARPA-E program area called Plants Engineered to Replace Oil, or PETRO, this project aims to develop a pine tree with an increased ability to produce turpentine, a natural liquid biofuel. If successful, researchers say, the project could eventually lead to the production of 100 million gallons of fuel per year from less than 25,000 acres of forestland.
• Manganese-based permanent magnet (Pacific Northwest National Lab, $2.3 million) – By developing a manganese-composite replacement for rare-earth-based magnets, the research team aims to reduce the cost of wind turbines and electric vehicles. Manganese composites could potentially achieve twice the strength of the magnets used today, while using inexpensive and abundant raw materials instead of rare earths.
• Real-time, automated control over grid transmission lines (Texas Engineering Experiment Station, $4.9 million) – Historically, the electric grid was designed to be passive, causing electric power to flow along the path of least resistance. The Texas research team is working on a transmission control system would create a stronger, more reliable grid and reduce the risk of future blackouts.

A full list of the latest ARPA-E projects to receive funding can be found on the agency’s website.