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
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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.
