Initial Application Step: Interested applicants must first submit a concept paper before April 2, 2010 at 5:00 P.M. (EST). The concept paper is limited to seven pages, including an abstract (150 word limit), technical section (five page limit, when combined with abstract), cost summary (one page limit), and end-of-project-targets table (one page template). Please note: Important information re registration and other pre-submission requirements (including ARPA-E eXCHANGE submission mechanics) is included in the funding opportunity announcement (FOA). Please refer to the FOA for details.

Notice of Encouragement/Discouragement to Submit
Full Application: Anticipated mid-April 2010

Full Application Submission Deadline: Anticipated
mid-May 2010

Award Announcements: Anticipated July 2010

Award Size: Anticipated award size is from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. The minimum amount for each award is $500,000 and the maximum amount is $10,000,000. ARPA-E anticipates making between five and fifteen awards totaling $30,000,000 under this FOA.

Award Instrument: Cooperative agreement or technology investment assignment (TIA)

Program Description

The purpose of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E) is to create transformational new energy technologies and systems through funding and managing research and development (R&D) efforts. ARPA-E’s mission is to overcome the long-term and high-risk technological barriers in the development of energy technologies that (1) enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that result in reductions of imports of energy from foreign sources, reductions of energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases, and improvement in the energy efficiency of all economic sectors, and (2) ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. It is expected that energy technologies funded by ARPA-E will help catalyze breakthroughs for national priorities which harness science and technology to address the “grand challenges” of the 21st century and unleash a clean energy revolution.

The focus of this FOA is to develop new technologies that enable the widespread deployment of cost-effective grid-scale energy storage. While many valuable applications for grid-scale storage exist, this FOA focuses on developing energy storage technologies to balance the short-duration variability in renewable generation. By investing in the development of grid-scale energy storage technology, ARPA-E states that this FOA will allow the U.S. to assume global technology and manufacturing leadership in the emerging and potentially massive global market for stationary electricity storage infrastructure. This FOA seeks to develop revolutionary new storage systems that provide energy, cost, and cycle life comparable to pumped hydropower, but which are modular and can be widely implemented at any location across the power grid.

Areas of Interest

Areas of interest for this FOA include, but are not limited to, the following:

Novel approaches to batteries, flow-batteries, fuel-cells, compressed air (non-traditional), superconducting-magnetic storage, ultra-high energy density flywheels, localized fluid pumping, high-scale ultracapacitors, or a combination of novel technologies to economically meet grid-scale storage energy and power requirements;
Electrochemical energy storage approaches based upon very low cost materials;
Novel approaches to compressed air energy storage (CAES), including systems with unique siting (including above ground and underwater) and systems that offer higher efficiencies and fast start-up times;
Extremely high energy density, low cost flywheel technologies;
New approaches to flow batteries that offer lower costs, higher power, and improved roundtrip efficiency through advanced power modules and novel storage chemistries;
Devices using higher critical current density superconducting storage materials;
Unique energy storage system designs that may have been unproven and deemed too technically risky for the DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability-led Energy Storage Demonstration Projects of the Smart-Grid Demonstration Grants Program; and
Energy storage systems that demonstrate a clear path to grid-scale deployment, providing 1MW-10MW of power.

Areas of supplemental or secondary interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Energy storage systems that may reliably operate on an unattended basis for extended periods of time (years) with low requirements for maintenance and low probability of irreparable damage due to conditions expected for grid assets;
Energy storage systems deployable across a range of geographical (mountain/plains/coastal) or demographic (urban/rural) locations, including deployment which may be constrained by existing substation facilities size and location;
Energy storage systems that are based on low-cost materials or have a low dependency on strategic/critical resources or materials, specifically such as alkali-metal or rare-earth metals of potentially limited domestic availability;
Advanced power conditioning systems in “Advanced Systems Prototyping” category projects, based on novel low-loss power electronics which have the potential to significantly improve system functionality such as round trip efficiency or provide multiple mode operation; and
Energy storage solutions that are fault-tolerant to unscheduled disruptions including black-out.

Mandatory Program Requirements

ARPA-E states that it welcomes submissions from any type of capable technology research and development entity. This includes, but is not limited to, for-profit entities, academic institutions, research foundations, not-for-profit entities, collaborations, and consortia. A Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) may submit a proposal as a project lead entity, only if the FFRDC is the lead for a consortium, collaboration, or other teaming arrangement. The FFRDC may not submit a proposal as a stand along entity. A minimum of 90% of the work, as defined by total project costs, must be performed on U.S. soil, which includes the United States proper and its territories.

Cost Sharing

If an applicant is exclusively an educational institution or consortia of educational institutions, a cost share of at least 10% of the total allowable costs will be required. Cost share of at least 20% is required of all other applicants. For awards where ARPA-E determines that use of a TIA is appropriate (i.e., when a standard cooperative agreement is not feasible or appropriate), a minimum 50% cost share of the total project cost is required.