The U.S. Department of Energy announced $505 million over four years in funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to promote the development of long-term energy storage technologies and to achieve the 100% clean electricity goal by 2035 by driving down the cost of more extensive commercial demonstration deployment of energy storage systems.
The details are as follows:
1. Technology demonstration stage
This phase will develop a number of practical scale technology demonstrations with potential applications. The demonstration scale is planned to be 100 kW or less and has been validated on a laboratory scale.
2. Project verification stage
Final technology validation is carried out before larger deployment to reduce risk and make the pioneering new technology feasible on a practical scale. This phase will require at least 10 hours of rated power data, third-party testing and verification that the energy storage cost is controlled within us $0.05 / KWH.
3. Pilot project stage
Projects funded in this phase will address institutional barriers to technology adoption in the marketplace. That is to prove the advantages of a new technology to users, communities or power systems in the application and operation of the technology. This phase will encourage eligible entities (including state energy offices, tribes, colleges, utilities and energy storage companies) to invest more in energy storage.