{"id":17378,"date":"2021-01-27T16:25:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T16:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saperemarketing.com\/clearpath\/?p=17378"},"modified":"2024-08-15T15:22:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T15:22:08","slug":"a-grand-opportunity-for-energy-storage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saperemarketing.com\/clearpath\/our-take\/a-grand-opportunity-for-energy-storage\/","title":{"rendered":"A Grand Opportunity for Energy Storage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Innovation is driving rapid transformation in America\u2019s energy system. Ten years ago, almost no one predicted the U.S. would be the top producer of oil and natural gas in the world, eclipsing Saudi Arabia and Russia. Similarly, few people predicted the cost of wind and solar would decline so rapidly, with utility-scale solar costs dropping 82%<\/a> since 2010. As a result of these dramatic changes, the U.S. leads the world in reducing energy-related carbon dioxide emissions while exporting our energy resources around the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the U.S. to continue to demonstrate energy and climate leadership, however, more innovation is needed to ensure the reliable integration of renewables into an evolving electric grid. After all, wind and solar are variable resources whose availability depends on the weather, which poses challenges to grid operators who must carefully balance supply and demand every minute of every day to keep the lights on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if we could develop technologies to cost-effectively store excess wind and solar generation and save it for later, thereby making renewables more flexible, on-demand resources? And what if the U.S. could lead the world in the manufacture and export of those technologies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has been working to address these questions, with bipartisan support from Congress, and we hope that continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2020, DOE launched the Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC)<\/a>, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in energy storage. DOE invests about $400 million per year in energy storage-related research, development, and demonstration (RD&D), yet the Department has never had a complex-wide energy storage strategy\u2014until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The DOE Roadmap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working under then-Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette\u2019s direction, I had the honor of co-chairing an internal working group to develop the Department\u2019s first-ever comprehensive energy storage strategy. After the Secretary launched the ESGC, our working group organized a series of virtual stakeholder meetings throughout the Spring and issued a Draft Roadmap for public comment in July. That work culminated in the Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap<\/a>, which DOE finalized and published in December 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DOE Roadmap focuses resources from across the Department to accelerate energy storage innovation in pursuit of three central goals: \u201cInnovate Here, Make Here, Deploy Everywhere.\u201d These goals are consistent with the BEST Act (Better Energy Storage Technology Act), which was introduced by Congress with bipartisan support in 2019 and was passed and signed into law as part of the Energy Act of 2020 last month. The ESGC and BEST Act goals provide a framework to bolster American competitiveness by ensuring the technological innovations invented in America can be manufactured domestically and exported around the world:<\/p>\n\n\n\n