Energy Storage Demonstration and Validation

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The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), on behalf of the Office of Electricity (OE), is releasing a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) to solicit applications for innovative long duration energy storage system (ESS) demonstration projects that advance a technology towards commercialization and validate its cost and performance in the field to the energy stakeholder community. These demonstrations will contribute data to the National Lab led Rapid Operational Validation Initiative (ROVI) in order to unlock insights about the performance of these systems that will accelerate the testing and validation process for emerging technologies. The FOA will contain three areas of interest based on eligible technology: 1. Lithium Batteries 2. Flow Batteries 3. Other Innovative Technologies, that will each be eligible for up to $5 million in federal funding available with 50% cost share provided by the applicant organization(s). These projects will support DOE priorities such as the Long Duration Storage Shot and Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) and address challenges identified in DOE’s Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Pathways to Commercial Liftoff report, Electricity Advisory Committee’s (EAC) 2022 Biennial Energy Storage Review, and the Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries (FCAB) blueprint for lithium batteries. As required under Section 3201(c)(4), DOE is required to “make publicly available a report describing the performance of those programs.” To fulfill this requirement, OE anticipates separately funding a competitively selected national lab consortium to implement the Rapid Operational Validation Initiative (ROVI), which will implement “accelerated life testing protocols to predict estimated lifetime metrics with accuracy,” as required under Section 3201(b)(3). ROVI will leverage the data from projects funded under this FOA to accelerate commercial development and deployment of a wide range of lithium batteries, flow batteries, and other storage technology. Applicant teams would be expected to work with the ROVI Lab Consortium to negotiate data sharing requirements and allocate a portion of the awarded funding to ensure these requirements are met.

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