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March 8, 2007
Dual use is alive and well
In the heyday of the earlier competitiveness debates, there was a lot of talk about dual-use technology: technology funded by DOD that has civilian as well as military applications -- like the Internet. At one point, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) even had its name changed to drop the "Defense" (it's original name was ARPA then DRPA then ARPA then back to DARPA). In recent years, the idea of using DOD funds to come up with civilian technology was out of favor. But, a story on the AP today indicates that dual-use has not completely disappeared (Solar technology gets White House boost - Yahoo! News):
President Bush's program to help solar energy compete with conventional electricity sources will help fund Konarka Technologies' development of flexible plastic solar cell strips — material that could be embedded into the casings of laptop computers and even woven into power-producing clothing to energize digital media players or other electronics.Given that DOD is by far the largest funder of R&D in this country (roughly $78 billion), it is good to hear that dual-use is still alive and well.
The technology, which received its first Pentagon funding three years ago, offers a lightweight, flexible alternative to conventional rigid photovoltaic cells on glass panels.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at March 8, 2007 10:08 AM
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