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US DoE announces Champions, Finalists for Energy Storage Innovations Prize

Tuesday, 28 February 2023

Source: US DoE

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) has announced the ten winners of the inaugural Energy Storage Innovations Prize. The American-Made challenge calls for solutions to grid-scale energy storage, with a cumulative prize value of $300,000.

The Energy Storage Innovations Prize focuses on nascent and emerging technologies that disrupt or advance current state-of-the-art energy storage research areas. As part of DOE's Storage Innovations 2030 Initiative, this prize aims to help the industry develop new technologies that have greatest potential to meet grid reliability, equity, and decarbonization goals.

Of the ten winning teams, OE has announced that five "Storage Innovations Champions" will receive $50,000 each and five "Storage Innovations Finalists" to receive $10,000 each.

To recognize their contributions, all winning teams may be included in a future Report to Congress focusing on the state of energy storage innovations in the United States, according to DoE.

The Storage Innovations Champions of the inaugural edition are as following:

Cryostone, Houston, TX
RCAM Technologies, Los Angeles, CA
Gravity Power LLC, Santa Barbara, CA
Electrified Thermal Solutions, Medford, MA
KineticCore Solutions, Loveland, CO

The Storage Innovations Finalists are as following:

Rondo Energy, Alameda, CA
Thermal Battery Corporation, Cambridge, MA
THEMES LLC, Houston, TX
NerG Solutions, Knoxville, TN
Cache Energy, Champaign, IL

Gene Rodrigues, OE Assistant Secretary for Electricity, commented on the innovations challenge, "Cost-effective, long-duration, and grid-scale energy storage is essential to supporting the nation's electric infrastructure in the transition to clean energy. The Energy Storage Innovations Prize showcases American innovation across a wide spectrum of energy storage research areas."

Submissions to the competition were judged on the innovation's quality, including a pathway to DOE's levelized cost of storage goals, strength of plan, and other unique benefits, such as supply chain considerations and equity, according to DoE.

The Energy Storage Innovations prize supports the Energy Storage Grand Challenge and Long Duration Storage Shot. These initiatives aim to reduce by 2030 the cost of grid-scale energy storage by 90 percent for systems that deliver 10 or more hours of electricity.

DOE is technology-agnostic in its approach to energy storage, and is considering all types of technologies, including electrochemical, mechanical, thermal, chemical carriers, and more.