Two new potential funding pathways for energy storage innovation
March 8, 2023
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new funding pathways for energy storage innovation
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Electricity (OE) today announced two new funding pathways for energy storage innovation. Grid-scale energy storage is critical to supporting a resilient and secure electricity grid that can more efficiently transmit clean energy in the United States.
The need for longer-duration storage technologies (providing 10+ hours) increases as more renewables deploy on the grid. Short-duration storage (predominantly lithium-ion batteries providing less than 10 hours) is currently installed.
The following actions would make up to a combined $27 million available for energy storage innovations that push emerging technology from the lab into the field:
Storage Innovations (SI) 2030: Liftoff Request for Information
The Storage Innovations (SI) Liftoff is issuing a Request for information to help inform the strategic efforts initiated in the other three pillars of SI 2030 (the Framework, Prize, and Flight paths) by fostering diverse partnerships between companies within storage technology industries to tackle research and development (R&D) challenges.
The anticipated $15 million SI Liftoff Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), planned to launch in Summer 2023, would go toward consortia, each consisting of two or more entities collaborating on pre-competitive R&D efforts and potentially performing that R&D through DOE National Laboratories. The goal would be to support a pathway to implement the strategy developed under the three pillars of SI 2030.
OE seeks comments regarding all elements of the proposed approach by April 3, 2023. Please review the Request for Information for how to respond on stay updated on next steps.
Energy Storage Demonstration and Validation Notice of Intent
The Energy Storage Demonstration and Validation anticipated FOA would pursue a competitive program to facilitate the large-scale commercial development and deployment of grid-scale lithium and redox-flow batteries.
The Energy Storage Demonstration and Validation FOA is expected to make up to $12 million available for cost-shared research, development, and demonstration projects to facilitate the large-scale commercial development and deployment of grid-scale lithium and redox-flow batteries.
DOE has funded or supported dozens of different energy storage technologies for a variety of use cases, including long-duration applications. In 2020, DOE launched the Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC), the comprehensive, DOE-wide strategy for coordinating energy storage efforts. ESGC enabled the creation of many cross-office and cross-laboratory collaborations and opportunities for energy storage R&D.
In 2021, DOE launched the Long-Duration Storage Shot, which established the target to reduce the cost of grid-scale energy storage by 90%, to $0.05/kWh levelized cost of storage, for systems that deliver 10+ hours of duration by 2030. These new funding opportunities would build upon existing work of the ESGC and Long-Duration Storage Shot programs.