The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) is launching the American-Made Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize.
Donor Name: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Awards and Prizes
Deadline: 04/30/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
This prize supports the acceleration of market adoption for cost-effective thermal energy storage technologies that can be charged by thermal or electrical sources, and provide heating, cooling, and/or power to industrial facilities.
To accommodate a variety of industrial sectors, the prize invites submissions of thermal energy storage solutions across a range of temperatures of industrial relevance. Competitors may submit up to one application to each of the following three categories:
- Industrial cooling energy storage
- High temperature (>300°C) industrial energy storage
- Industrial thermal storage for hybrid cooling, heating, and power
These storage solutions facilitate time shifting of either electric or thermal energy demand to enable on-site or near-site renewable energy to fully meet the heat or power demands of industrial processes. This not only saves time and money, but also gives manufacturers greater control over the availability and integration of energy into their operations.
Prize Structure
The Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize offers a total prize pool of $4.8 million in cash across three phases.
- Phase 1: Design
- Competitors present a cost-effective concept that has the potential to support industrial-level load storage for thermal or electric energy needs that increase the energy efficiency of the U.S. industry. Up to 18 winners are selected with up to six winners in each category. Winning teams each receive $100,000 in cash and are eligible to compete in Phase 2.
- Phase 2: Advance
- Teams create a proof-of-concept prototype and collect bench-scale data that can be used to optimize a technoeconomic and/or life cycle analysis to demonstrate that the concept would be applicable to industrial partners. Up to nine winners are selected with up to three winners per category. Winning teams each receive $200,000 in cash and are eligible to compete in Phase 3.
- Phase 3: Validate
- Teams demonstrate the prototype of their innovation and identify future scalability. Up to three winners are selected with one winner selected in each category. Winning teams each receive $400,000 in cash. Winners of Phase 3 may have the opportunity to enter into a cooperative agreement with IEDO for continued development of their technology and may be required to work with IEDO to generate a validation report for the Industrial Technology Validation program.
Eligibility Criteria
The competition is open only to individuals; private entities (for-profits and nonprofits); nonfederal government entities such as states, counties, tribes, and municipalities; and academic institutions, subject to the following requirements:
- An individual prize competitor (who is not competing as a member of a group) must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
- A group of individuals competing as one team may win, provided all individuals competing as part of the team are U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States.
- Private entities must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States.
- Academic institutions must be based in the United States.
- DOE employees, employees of sponsoring organizations, members of their immediate families (e.g., spouses, children, siblings, or parents), and persons living in the same household as such persons, whether or not related, are not eligible to participate in the prize.
- Individuals who worked at DOE (federal employees or support service contractors) within six months prior to the submission deadline of any contest are not eligible to participate in any prize contests in this program.
- Federal entities and federal employees are not eligible to participate in any portion of the prize.
- DOE national laboratory employees cannot compete in the prize.
- Entities and individuals publicly banned from doing business with the U.S. government, such as entities and individuals debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from or ineligible for participating in federal programs, are not eligible to compete.
- Individuals participating in a foreign government talent recruitment program sponsored by a country of risk and teams that include such individuals are not eligible to compete.
- Entities owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a government of a country of risk are not eligible to compete.
For more information, visit DOE.
