U.S. Department of Energy spends $325 million to support 15 energy storage projects

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $325 million investment in developing new batteries to convert solar and wind energy into 24-hour stable power. The funds will be distributed to 15 projects in 17 states and a Native American tribe in Minnesota.

Batteries are increasingly being used to store excess renewable energy for later use when the sun or wind is not shining. The DOE said these projects will protect more communities from blackouts and make energy more reliable and affordable.

The new funding is for “long-duration” energy storage, meaning it can last longer than the typical four hours of lithium-ion batteries. From sunset to sunrise, or store energy for days at a time. Long-term battery storage is like a rainy day “energy storage account.” Regions experiencing rapid growth in solar and wind energy are typically most interested in long-duration energy storage. In the United States, there is a lot of interest in this technology in places like California, New York, and Hawaii.

Here are some of the projects funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021:

– A project led by Xcel Energy in partnership with long-time battery manufacturer Form Energy will deploy two 10-megawatt battery storage installations with 100 hours of use at the sites of shuttered coal power plants in Becker, Minn., and Pueblo, Colo. .

– A project at California Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera, an underserved community, will install a battery system to add reliability to an acute care medical center facing potential power outages from wildfires, floods and heat waves. The project is led by the California Energy Commission in partnership with Faraday Microgrids.

– The Second Life Smart Systems program in Georgia, California, South Carolina and Louisiana will use retired but still usable electric vehicle batteries to provide backup for senior centers, affordable housing and electric vehicle chargers power supply.

– Another project developed by battery diagnostics company Rejoule will also use decommissioned electric vehicle batteries at three sites in Petaluma, California; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and a worker training center in Red Lake country, not far from the Canadian border.

David Klain, the U.S. Department of Energy’s undersecretary for infrastructure, said the funded projects will demonstrate that these technologies can operate at scale, help utilities plan for long-duration energy storage, and begin to reduce costs. Cheap batteries would remove the biggest obstacle to the renewable energy transition.