CHAMPAIGN — For Arpit Dwivedi, energy isn’t just a public service: It’s a means to a better life.
Growing up in India, he saw people less fortunate than his own family and how their lives changed as energy became more accessible over time.
“As energy changed, so did life trajectories,” he said, “and I learned that energy isn’t just a commodity; it’s at the heart of the socio-economic issues facing the world. For example, if people have access to energy, they feel more secure at night. Girls can stay out later. They can go to school.”
“…It touches everybody. This isn’t something you build in a particular place or for a particular kind of people. The poorest, the richest, everybody is touched by the energy.”
Driven by his desire to increase access to energy, Dwivedi earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois and founded a clean energy startup that recently received national recognition.
Cash Energy, headquartered at the University of Illinois Research Park, won first place at the 2024 Energy Innovation Cluster Program (EPIC) Awards Collaboration Event, receiving $30,000 for its presentation.
The event was hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transition. According to the Department of Energy, 10 incubators were awarded in the first round of EPIC, and each incubator nominated one startup to present a clean energy business plan to a panel of experts at the White House on May 9. Each team had just five minutes to present.
Chicago-based Evergreen Climate Innovations nominated Cache Energy, which won $10,000 for its first place finish.
Cash Energy has developed a “non-toxic, non-flammable and fire-retardant long-term energy storage solution in solid fuels, which can also be used to provide process heat/steam to industries, as well as for commercial and residential heating,” Department of Energy officials said.
Dwivedi described their technology as “coal without consequences.”
“It’s a low-cost solid that can be charged and discharged like a battery, but it also has the properties of a fuel, like coal,” he says. “So you can charge it in one place and transport it to another, just like you can mine coal somewhere and transport it to another place where you need energy. Coal can be stored safely. Our material can be stored safely.”
Another benefit, he added, is that Cash Energy has been able to refurbish abandoned coal-fired power plants and turn them into “clean energy storage centers” using its technology, and it can also provide jobs to people who previously worked in the coal industry, he said.
In addition to its White House win, Cache Energy has raised $8.5 million in venture capital funding.
Aside from the cash prize, Dwivedi said the bigger benefit of winning the EPIC competition is the attention and credibility that comes with being recognized by the DOE.
The company has already received an award from the Ministry of Electricity Bureau in 2022.
“We’re not the only ones who think this is a great technology,” Dwivedi said.
“No, the people who are best able to judge these technologies think it’s cool technology.”
