On Monday the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) issued a request for information (RFI) to aid better understanding of design and manufacturing decisions and challenges that could impact, or potentially limit, the scaling of energy storage production.
This comes in the light of a recent DOE analysis which suggested that up to 15GW per year of manufacturing capacity will be needed by 2030 to cleanly and cost-effectively expand the US electrical grid.
The agency is seeking input from academia, industry, research labs, government agencies and other stakeholders.
The OE acknowledges the many promising energy storage technologies for stationary application but is also aware of potential barriers including cost, supply chain and deployment challenges that may impact the scaling-up of these technologies.
It is hoped that the information obtained will help identify solutions leading to “National industrial-scale storage manufacturing that provides reliable, resilient, secure and affordable electricity”.
Gene Rodrigues, Assistant Secretary for electricity, said: ”Manufacturing domestic energy storage technologies on an industrial scale is foundational to increasing the affordability and widespread use of these technologies. Responses to this RFI will help shape our understanding of manufacturability challenges and inform how we prioritise solutions”.
Responses to the RFI are to be submitted by 10 June 2024.
