The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) today announced the ten winners of the inaugural American-Made Energy Storage Innovations Prize. The American-Made Challenge calls for solutions to grid-scale energy storage, focusing on nascent and emerging technologies that disrupt or advance current state-of-the-art energy storage research areas. As part of DOE’s Storage Innovations 2030 Initiative, this prize is helping industry develop new technologies that have greatest potential to meet grid reliability, equity, and decarbonization goals.  

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is issuing a lab call to develop the Rapid Operational Validation Initiative (ROVI), which will address critical gaps in data needs to evaluate energy storage, such as the lack of access to large and uniform sets of performance data that are necessary to accelerate the pace at which technology development can occur.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced it closed on a $504.4 million loan guarantee to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah — marking the first loan guarantee for a new clean energy technology project from DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) since 2014. The loan guarantee will help finance construction of the largest clean hydrogen storage facility in the world, capable of providing long-term low-cost, seasonal energy storage, furthering grid stability. The project is expected to create up to 400 construction and 25 operations jobs, advancing President Biden’s climate and clean energy deployment goal of net zero emissions by 2050. 

The Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity (OE) Energy Storage Program has selected 14 communities from more than 60 applicants to receive technical assistance from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as part of the Energy Storage for Social Equity (ES4SE) Initiative. Launched in September 2021 and funded by the Energy Storage Program, ES4SE supports underserved communities as they leverage energy storage as a means of increasing resilience and long-term affordability.

The Department of Energy (DOE) defines energy burden as the percentage of gross household income spent on heating or cooling the home. According to DOE’s Low-Income Energy Affordability Data Tool, the energy burden for low-income households is 8.6 percent, three times higher than for non-low-income households which is estimated at 3 percent. In some areas, energy burden can be as high as 30 percent. Of all U.S. households, 44 percent are considered low-income. To address these disparities, the Energy Storage Program under the DOE’s Office of Electricity launched the Energy Storage for Social Equity Initiative (ES4SE). This is a $9 million effort to help up to 15 disadvantaged communities look at energy storage to meet energy goals.

The Department of Energy recently launched a new $9 million effort—the Energy Storage for Social Equity Initiative (ES4SE)—to assist as many as 15 underserved and frontline communities to leverage energy storage as a means of increasing resilience and maximizing energy flexibility. This funding will help promote an equitable clean energy transition, advance more affordable and reliable electricity, and support the Biden Administration’s Justice40 goals.

Managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Transitions, the Lab Partnering Service (LPS) offers access to the world’s most advanced scientific facilities and researchers across the Department’s national lab complex. LPS provides investors—and other parties looking to advance energy innovation—a single online platform to connect with leading DOE national laboratory technical experts to quickly answer innovation questions, as well as discover opportunities for building partnerships and taking research or product advancements to the next level.