These are truly exciting days in the energy storage field! A 21st century power grid will need to integrate increasingly diverse sources of electricity, and that calls for advancements in the performance and affordability of storage technologies.
September 22, 2023
minute read time
Gene Rodrigues
Former Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity
Former Assistant Secretary for Electricity
Gene Rodrigues is the former Assistant Secretary for Electricity for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The Office of Electricity drives technological and operational advancements in grid systems and components, grid controls and communications, and grid-scale energy storage to ensure that our nation’s power grid remains reliable, resilient, secure, and affordable. Mr. Rodrigues also served as DOE’s senior official on the federal interagency working group for the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.
Mr. Rodrigues brought over three decades of industry experience to DOE as a nationally recognized expert in clean energy policy and programs. Prior to joining DOE, Mr. Rodrigues was Vice President in the Energy, Environment, and Infrastructure practice at ICF, a global advisory and digital services provider. Before that, he garnered 23 years of industry experience as an executive at Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities.
Throughout his professional career, Mr. Rodrigues has held leadership positions in industry associations, including most recently as a member of the board of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the chair of the board for the California Efficiency & Demand Management Council, and the chair of the outreach committee for the bipartisan Alliance to Save Energy’s Active Efficiency initiative. Previously, he served as the chair of the board for the Consortium for Energy Efficiency and as a board member on the China-U.S. Energy Efficiency Alliance and California’s Low-Income Oversight Board.
In recognition of his industry leadership, in 2012 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented Mr. Rodrigues with its Climate Leadership Award for individual leadership. In 2022, the Alliance to Save Energy presented Mr. Rodrigues with their Charles H. Percy Award for Public Service, which honors the late Senator’s commitment to bipartisanship. In 2024, the California Energy Commission honored him with a lifetime achievement award at the Clean Energy Hall of Fame Award Ceremony.
Mr. Rodrigues received a J.D. from University of California Law, San Francisco (formerly U.C. Hastings College of the Law), and a B.S. degree from Northern Arizona University.
These are truly exciting days in the energy storage field! A 21st-century power grid will need to integrate increasingly diverse sources of electricity, and that calls for advancements in the performance and affordability of storage technologies to maintain grid stability. Our work in the Office of Electricity (OE) helps foster these advancements and breakthroughs, which is why we are excited to celebrate World Energy Storage Day! Our Office shared blogs from OE division leaders over the past three weeks to highlight how we collectively promote real-world solutions for the American people. I’m proud of how each division plays a vital role in maintaining the reliability, resilience, and security of the American power grid, via research, development and demonstration of grid-scale, long-duration energy storage technologies. In honor of today’s Energy Storage Day observance across the world, I would like to highlight OE’s Energy Storage Division’s achievements.
Our American-Made Challenge Program incentivizes innovation through monetary awards, training, and mentoring through our nation’s 17 National Labs. This summer, we announced $30 million in awards and funding opportunities that will ‘supercharge’ the future of energy storage and enable cost-effective solutions for all Americans’ electricity needs. The opportunities include potential funding related to long-duration energy storage technology reliability and tackling pre-competitive energy storage research and development barriers. This is the culmination of extensive stakeholder outreach over the past year, as well as hard work from our Energy Storage Division, which is on the forefront of advancing the most advanced long-duration storage available.
We also help direct funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law toward sparking advancements in longer-duration storage technologies. The $500 million allocated to the President’s ‘Long-Duration Energy Storage for Everyone, Everywhere Initiative’ will advance energy storage systems toward widespread commercial deployment by lowering the costs and increasing the duration.
As you know, cheaper, longer-duration energy storage can increase local control of the power system, build resilience for communities, minimize power grid disruptions, and help us reach the President’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.
The Department of Energy’s Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) is a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies. The goal is to meet all U.S. market demands by 2030. Energy storage could deliver about $10 billion–20 billion in annual savings from operating costs and avoid capital expenditures by 2050. Storage will also allow us to integrate renewable energy at scale and provide resilience.
The power sector traditionally relied on fossil fuel-based generation assets to meet peak demand. More renewables mean the grid will need to be smarter and more flexible, adaptable, and reliable. Now that our grid can integrate more diverse sources of electricity, we can develop and implement storage technologies. OE works tirelessly to improve the safety, reliability, and performance of long-duration energy storage, while making it as cost effective as possible.
In recognition of World Energy Storage Day, we stand at the edge of a transformative time—propelled by the remarkable achievements of OE’s Energy Storage Division—with support from the Grid Systems and Components and Grid Controls and Communications teams. The journey toward a stable grid seamlessly integrated with diverse sources of electricity is now more promising than ever. The culmination of efforts, such as the American-Made Challenge Program's incentivized ingenuity, the directed funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the ambitious ESGC, paints an inspiring picture of progress. We are focused on how to get storage technology adopted in the real world. It is not just about performance, but about driving down cost for the benefit of all Americans.