PRESS RELEASE: The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) today announced the selectees of $15 million in awards at the Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Council Summit on April 8, 2024. These awards are through the Storage Innovations 2030: Technology Liftoff funding opportunity announcement (FOA) to advance energy storage innovations to help deliver clean, affordable electricity to Americans when and where it is needed most.
OE selected three organizations (listed below) for their innovative ideas to tackle key R&D barriers in the domestic energy storage industry. Entities are awarded up to $5 million each for projects that bring together technology stakeholders and research institutions to solve one or more pre-competitive R&D technical challenge. Projects must enable a long-duration capable (10+ hours) energy storage technology with a pathway to $0.05/ kWh Levelized Cost of Storage (LCOS) by 2030, the goal of the Long Duration Storage Shot.
Long-duration grid scale energy storage helps build the electric grid that will power our clean-energy economy—and accomplish President Biden’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. These projects build on the Inflation Reduction Act’s domestic production incentives for energy storage by launching three U.S. consortia to advance zinc, lead, and flow battery technologies.
While most storage deployed today is based on lithium chemistries, these consortia will help create a future diversified and secure energy storage supply chain that reduces dependence on critical materials.
“These funding opportunities help propel the future of energy storage and deliver cost-effective solutions for our nation’s electricity needs” said Gene Rodrigues, Assistant Secretary for Electricity. “Energy storage bolsters system reliability and enables every American to benefit from abundant and affordable clean energy. These consortia will accelerate the race to achieve the Long Duration Storage Shot, fulfilling the promise of next-generation energy storage technologies for the benefit of the American people.”
The following projects have been selected:
- New Lab, LLC
- Project Title: Enabling high-capacity zinc utilization through electrode and electrolyte fundamentals
- Federal share: $4,992,570
- Battery Council International
- Project Title: Consortium for Lead Battery Leadership in LDES
- Federal share: $4,972,746
- Clean Tech Strategies LLC
- Project title: Pre-Competitive Research & Development to Accelerate the Maturation of Flow Battery Technologies into Cost-Effective Long Duration Energy Storage
- Federal share: $5,000,000
These projects will solve key technical and non-technical challenges, emphasizing strong collaboration in the zinc, lead, and flow battery industries to meet the nation’s growing need for clean, efficient, cost-effective energy for a changing electric power grid. By partnering industry participants with universities and national labs, these consortia will be able to leverage significant expertise and capabilities to pursue major improvements in long duration storage.
DOE has been involved in energy storage research and development for decades. Through investments and ongoing initiatives like DOE’s Energy Storage Grand Challenge—which draws on the extensive research capabilities of the DOE National Laboratories, universities, and industry—energy-storage technologies are now more cost effective and ready for commercialization.
OE announced the Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) initiatives in July 2023 to accelerate the development, commercialization, and use of next-generation energy storage technologies and to sustain American global leadership in energy storage. This comprehensive set of solutions requires concerted action, guided by an aggressive goal of developing and domestically manufacturing energy storage technologies that meet all U.S. market demands by 2030.
