CYCLING HARDWARE TO ANALYZE AND READY GRID-SCALE ELECTRICITY STORAGE (CHARGES)

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The Advanced Research Projects Agency ? Energy (ARPA-E), an organization within the Department of Energy, is chartered by Congress in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-69), as amended by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358), to support the creation of transformational energy technologies and systems through funding and managing Research and Development (R&D) efforts. Originally chartered in 2007, the Agency was first funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The mission of ARPA-E is to identify and fund research to translate science into breakthrough energy technologies that are too risky for the private sector and that, if successfully developed, will create the foundation for entirely new industries. Successful projects will address at least one of ARPA-E?s two Mission Areas: 1. Enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that result in: a. reductions of imports of energy from foreign sources; b. reductions of energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; and c. improvement in the energy efficiency of all economic sectors. 2. Ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. This program seeks to fund the accelerated commercialization of stationary storage technologies; ARPA-E is initiating the CHARGES program, which focuses on valuing and validating the performance of new stationary storage technologies and fostering industry acceptance of these systems. The CHARGES program includes evaluation of emerging ARPA-E funded stationary storage systems through both controlled laboratory testing as well as under real-world conditions on a microgrid, with substantial participation from future adopters of energy storage systems. This program structure will help ensure that owners of power systems assets have reliable information about the performance characteristics, operating requirements, and life expectancy of emerging stationary storage technologies as those systems are developed. The structure of the CHARGES program differs from previous ARPA-E programs; CHARGES awardees will not develop new technologies, but rather will provide facilities and exper tise to teams with existing or past ARPA-E funding who are developing new grid storage technologies. CHARGES awardees will assist ARPA-E-funded battery developers in analyzing, scaling, and testing new battery and flow battery systems, and will also provide a conduit into a potential buyer of grid storage devices, such as a utility, IPP, microgrid operator, or commercial end user. ARPA-E WILL DETERMINE WHICH STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES ARE TESTED AT THE APPLICANT?S FACILITY. APPLICANTS SHOULD NOT PROPOSE SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGY VENDORS AS PARTNERS IN THIS PROGRAM. APPLICANTS WILL PROVIDE UNBIASED ANALYSIS AND TEST SERVICES IN THIS PROGRAM, AND MUST AGREE TO MAINTAIN STRICT CONFIDENTIALITY REGARDING THE TECHNICAL DETAILS OF THE SYSTEMS BEING TESTED AND THE RESULTS THAT ARE GENERATED.

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