On December 21, 2020, the Department of Energy (DOE) released the Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap, the DOE’s first comprehensive energy storage strategy.[1] Announced in January 2020 by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, the Energy Storage Grand Challenge (ESGC) seeks to increase domestic production of energy storage and create American leadership in storage. DOE also released two companion ESGC reports, the 2020 Grid Energy Storage Technology Cost and Performance Assessment and the Energy Storage Market Report 2020, to provide easily accessible data and information to energy stakeholders.

DOE’s roadmap includes a goal to develop and domestically manufacture energy storage technologies that can meet all U.S. market demands by 2030. To achieve this, DOE has a suite of initiative including promoting continued research, boosting the manufacturing and supply chain for batteries, providing relevant energy storage data, and enhancing workforce development programs. The DOE aims to achieve a $0.05/kWh levelized cost of storage for long-duration stationary applications, which include utility-scale battery storage facilities that can store energy for 10 hours or more, by 2030. The reduction would be a 90% reduction in costs and would help facilitate “commercial viability” for storage across a wide range of uses. The DOE also aims to lower the costs of battery packs for EVs with a driving range of 300 miles to $80/kWh by 2030, which is 44% lower than current battery packs. If achieved, the DOE projects that electric cars would be competitive with standard gasoline cars.

[1] https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-releases-energy-storage-grand-challenge-roadmap