US DOE funds three groups to research battery technologies for long-duration storage

The US Energy Department has announced $15 million in funding to three groups for research into various battery technologies for use in long-duration energy storage projects.

Assistant Secretary for Electricity Gene Rodrigues made the announcement April 8 at the Long Duration Energy Storage Summit in Washington, which the DOE hosted alongside the Edison Foundation's Institute for the Energy Transition, the Electric Power Research Institute and the Long Duration Energy Storage Council.

The three groups selected are New Lab, which will research zinc batteries, Battery Council International, which will focus on lead batteries, and Clean Tech Strategies, which will concentrate on flow battery technologies, Rodrigues said.

The three consortia will "tackle key [research and development] barriers while looking to diversify the types, the approaches, [and] the chemistries for energy storage that we can rely upon in this country," Rodrigues said.

Each consortium would receive up to $5 million to work with technology stakeholders and research institutions, including US national laboratories, "to solve one or more critical issues that we see in the pathway for the future," Rodrigues said.

The goal of the research is to help develop various technologies to bolster the nation's power grid amid the transition from dispatchable fossil fuel resources to intermittent renewables. Rodrigues stressed the need for the nation to "diversify around different chemistries" so the power grid does not become excessively dependent on one specific technology or mineral.

Long-duration energy storage "is not just a helpful technology," Rodrigues said. "I believe it's foundational. It is foundational to the grid that will serve the American people for the next 100 years."

In a separate statement April 8, the DOE's Office of Electricity said the projects funded must enable an energy storage technology capable of storing power for at least 10 hours while also providing a pathway to a levelized cost of storage of 5 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2030. That goal was laid out in the DOE's Long Duration Storage Shot program, launched in 2021, which called for slashing the cost of grid-scale LDES projects by 90% by no later than 2030.

"These funding opportunities help propel the future of energy storage and deliver cost-effective solutions for our nation's electricity needs," Rodrigues said in the statement. "Energy storage bolsters system reliability and enables every American to benefit from abundant and affordable clean energy."

At the summit, Rodrigues also said the DOE would formally announce two other funding opportunities for LDES projects later this spring.

The first, a technology accelerator award, would be available to vendors, manufacturers and what he termed "innovators." The second batch of funding, which Rodrigues said would focus on community development, would be made available to state and local governments, municipalities, tribes and other parties -- including utilities -- for a range of services including technical assistance, permitting support and modeling.

"Long story made short, we at the DOE are proud to be a partner at the table with all of you," Rodrigues said at the summit, speaking to attendees from utilities, developers and other organizations. "We're more than happy to do whatever we need to do whenever we need to do it to help you along."