The U.S. aims to cut long-duration energy storage costs by 90% within the decade

The U.S. Secretary of Energy, Jennifer M. Granholm yesterday announced the Department of Energy's (DOE) new target to reduce the cost of grid-scale, long-duration energy storage by 90 percent within the decade.

The latest announcement by Secretary Granholm is the second target of DOE's Energy Earthshot Initiative aimed to accelerate "breakthroughs of more abundant, affordable, and reliable clean energy solutions within the decade."

"We're going to bring hundreds of gigawatts of clean energy onto the grid over the next few years, and we need to be able to use that energy wherever and whenever it's needed," said Secretary Granholm.

"That's why DOE is working aggressively toward cheaper, longer duration energy storage to reach President Biden's goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035."

The first target of the initiative was announced in June this year, aimed at slashing the cost of clean hydrogen by 80 percent to $1 per kilogram in one decade.

Long-duration energy storage refers to an energy storage system that can store energy for more than 10 hours at a time, and provide support to a low-cost, reliable, carbon-free electric grid.

As per DOE's latest statement, the Long Duration Storage Shot will consider all types of technologies – whether electrochemical, mechanical, thermal, chemical carriers, or any combination that has the potential to meet the necessary duration and cost targets for grid flexibility.

Currently, pumped-storage hydropower is the largest source of long-duration energy storage on the grid, and lithium-ion is the primary source of new energy storage technology deployed on the grid in the United States, providing shorter duration storage capabilities, it added.

The Long Duration Storage Shot target has been developed by the DOE through its intersecting Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) and is based on broader stakeholder inputs and discussions.

ESGC and the Long Duration Shortage Shot are linked with integrated efforts across the Department's Offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Electricity, Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Science, Nuclear Energy, and Technology Transitions, as well as the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, DOE stated.

The Energy Earthshot Initiative is call for innovation, collaboration, and acceleration of clean energy economy by the DOE. DOE aims to achieve this by addressing the remaining barriers to the rapid deployment of emerging clean energy technologies at scale.