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Federal boost to local firms
$700 million in Recovery Act funds flow to area, including for energy projects

Nearly $9 million in federal funds has gone to local companies under the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E).

Recipient firms include the publicly traded Codexis, Inc., of Redwood City ($4.65 million for carbon-capture technology) and Menlo Park-based Recapping Inc. ($1 million for an energy-storage device based on a 3D nanocomposite structure offering a possibly more cost-effective alternative to batteries).

Another $3.2 million went to Boston-based Pellion Technologies Inc. for a magnesium-ion battery project that is based in Menlo Park.

Santa Clara-based Applied Materials, Inc., also received ARPA-E funds for its effort to develop ultra-high-energy, low-cost lithium-ion batteries enabled by a novel manufacturing process.

Stanford University received nearly $6 million in ARPA-E funds, mostly for projects involving building efficiency and also for an all-electron batter project.

Those funds are among the nearly $700 million flowing to more than 550 projects in the 14th Congressional District under the federal Recovery Act, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto.

Eshoo said the district was in the top 10 of all Congressional districts in winning federal contracts, and was No. 1 in California in 2008 and 2009.

In 2009, the 14th District received $3.05 billion, or 22 percent, of California federal R&D contracts — more than twice than that received from 2003 to 2006 combined, Eshoo's office said.

—Chris Kenrick