US$1.3bn funding package for storage R&D, demonstrators, manufacturing proposed

More than a billion dollars in funding for energy storage research, demonstration projects and manufacturing has been approved by a US government subcommittee.

The Congressional Committee, a subcommittee of the US House Committee on Appropriations, has approved the funding package as part of the Financial Year 2021 Energy and Water Development Funding Bill, which itself a near-US$50 billion support package for infrastructure and climate change-related initiatives.

The Bill includes US$3.35 billion of “necessary expenses” related to grid modernisation programmes, with specific pledges on energy storage including;

• US$56.5 million to construct the Grid Storage Launchpad, a national energy storage research and development (R&D) facility created by the Department of Energy (DoE), to be hosted at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). It follows the DoE’s identification of the need to accelerate development of “next generation energy storage technology as a national priority” which would modernise the power grid and unlock economic and societal benefits, according to the PNNL.
• US$500 million in funding for energy storage demonstration projects, which would be “across a portfolio of technologies and approaches,” the Bill reads.
• At least US$770.5 million in grants to US-based manufacturers of advanced batteries and components.

The full text of the Bill can be found here. 

For more on this story, please read its original version on Energy-Storage.news.

Tags: us, policy, regulation, energy storage, r&d