Energy Storage Innovations Prize Round 2

Energy Storage Innovations Prize Round 2 will open for submissions later this fall. Follow the prize to be notified when submissions open.

After a successful Round 1, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) is excited to announce Round 2 of the Energy Storage Innovations Prize. This single-phase, $300,000 competition aims to gain insights on innovative, emerging, and next-generation energy storage solutions that address niche markets and inform the DOE’s strategy on transformative storage technologies to accelerate grid modernization for all consumers, while achieving needed reliability, affordability, and energy security.

This competition places a focus on less conventional use cases (e.g., remote and/or underserved communities and extreme climate) and innovative (less mature) energy storage technology solutions, across all duration scales, to advance the market landscape.

Submissions will be judged on how innovative the use case and solution are, the strength of the plan, and other unique benefits including equity, supply chain considerations, and other factors.

Prizes 

Up to five Champions will receive a $50,000 cash prize each and up to five Finalists will receive a $10,000 cash prize each.

The competition is open to individuals; academia, non-federal government entities, small businesses, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and other inventors who are working on nascent or emerging energy storage innovations that address less conventional use cases (e.g., remote and/or underserved communities and extreme climate) all subject to the full requirements in the Official Rules (coming soon). Competitors may be individuals or teams. 

Guidelines 

Please review the Official Rules (coming soon) for the complete submission process and instructions for participating in this prize. If your question isn’t directly addressed in the rules document, we encourage all competitors to use the public Forum tab on HeroX where a prize administrator will respond as soon as possible.

The Prize places a focus on less conventional use cases (e.g., remote and/or underserved communities, extreme climate) and innovative (less mature) energy storage technology solutions, across all duration scales, to advance the market landscape. DOE is not providing a list of “less conventional use cases” that are eligible for this prize. The prize submission must demonstrate that the use case is less conventional and clearly differentiate how the innovative technology solution solves a problem for a market, community, sector, or other group that is significantly different from conventional applications of that technology. 

The energy storage technologies eligible for consideration in a solution are not limited but must discharge electricity. Below are examples of eligible energy storage technologies. However, other technologies beyond those listed are of interest to DOE.