The Energy Department plans to announce $350 million for long-duration energy storage on Monday, among the first actions under the agency’s new mission to demonstrate clean technologies.
The department is targeting up to 11 demonstration projects capable of delivering electricity for 10 to 24 hours or longer—a major leap from current battery technology that tends to be a 4-hour duration, David Crane, director of the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, told Bloomberg Law ahead of the announcement.
The DOE would fund up to 50% of the cost of those projects, which are crucial to its goal of reducing the cost of grid-scale energy storage by 90% by 2030.
Energy storage key to “a critical part of coming up with a resilient grid that is more dependent on solar, wind and other green resources,” Crane said. Solar and wind operate intermittently, when the sun is shining or when the wind is blowing, so longer power delivery periods provide more grid flexibility.
He plans to make the announcement at an event hosted the Edison Electric Institute, a trade association of investor-owned electric utilities.
“There’s still a lot of gap in the market where we think that the Department of Energy can catalyze and develop new technologies,” Crane said.
Second Major Funding Effort
The battery program marks the second major funding announcement by the office, which is also leading the hydrogen hub program that unveiled a $7 billion funding opportunity in September.
The office was established in December 2021 to dole out billions for demonstration projects under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Historically, DOE has focused on earlier-stage research and development.
It’s the department’s first foray into demonstrating a technology that clean energy advocates expect to boom following the climate and tax law known as the Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169).
The Democrats’ climate bill established a tax credit for standalone battery storage projects, an incentive to build projects where they are needed most. Batteries have been mostly built alongside solar projects, which have long qualified for a tax credit.
The department will be looking for a range of technologies that can be applied in different regions of the country. In addition to different chemistries and storage mechanisms, DOE hopes to scale up modular pumped-storage technology that can be installed anywhere.
“We’re looking for solutions that have broad application and can be cost-competitive,” Crane said. “What makes this a very interesting [funding announcement], as you will see, is the types of technology are sort of completely different.”
Crane, who joined the department this year with three decades in the energy sector, has been tapped to serve as the department’s undersecretary of infrastructure. He is scheduled for a confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Nov. 17.
Read More: New $350 Million Effort Targets Long-Duration Clean Electricity