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Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize

Open Date:

1/16/2025

Close Date:

11/19/2026

Eligible Recipients:

  • Educational Institutions
  • General Public
  • Local Governments
  • Native/Tribal Entities
  • Non-profits
  • Private Sector
  • State Governments

Program Purpose:

  • Energy Infrastructure

Reserved for Energy
Communities?

No

Upcoming Milestones:

Informational Webinar: January 28, 2025 at 2 pm ET. Register here.

This prize closes and re-opens with each of its phases.

Bureau/Office:

Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO)

Funded by:

U.S. Department of Energy

Overview

America's industrial sector, which manufactures materials and products essential to daily life and the U.S. economy, accounts for one-third of the nation’s primary energy use. Industrial energy storage solutions that can accommodate cooling, thermal, and/or electric energy loads could serve as a cross-sector method for advancing efficiency of industrial facilities while reducing additional burden on the electric grid.

Prize Overview

The Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize is a $4.8 million challenge sponsored by the DOE. The prize seeks cost-effective energy storage concepts for industrial facilities that enhance energy efficiency and are applicable across industrial sectors. 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 clean 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.

Related Resources

Additional information is available on the Resources page.

Funding Details

Funding Source:
Funding Type:
Direct Award
Total Amount Available:
$4,800,000
Limit per Applicant:
Estimated Awards:

Applicant Guidance

Contact Information

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