US DOE awards $14m for unique energy storage systems for critical facilities and infrastructure

The DoE has awarded $14.1 million to help develop innovative energy storage systems at three sites.

Disbursing the cash under the CiFER fund set up by the DoE‘s Electricity Office in August, the federal body will back projects enabling critical facilities to continue operating in the event of blackouts and other emergencies.

Long Hill Energy Partners has secured the maximum $5 million grant available under CiFER towards the cost of installing one of Quino Energy‘s organic quinone flow batteries at the High Desert Regional Health Center in Lancaster, California.

Californian business Quino Energy said the project, which has previously secured $10 million from the California Energy Commission, will see the first commercial deployment of its acqueous flow battery technology in the United States.

Binghampton University, in Endicott, New York state, also secured $5 million from CiFER for a “bio mineralized lithium mixed metal phosphate (BMLMP)” battery which will power critical services such as fire safety and water treatment on campus.

The BMLMP technology developed by New York-based C4V includes a mixed metal phosphate material in the cathode which its developer says enables 3.9 V of charge, 20% more voltage than rival lithium iron phosphate (LFP) devices and 8% more than nickel, manganese, cobalt and nickel, cobalt, aluminum cells.

The DoE program also awarded $4.1 million to California-based Inlyte Energy for an iron sodium LDES system which will supply multi-day storage capacity and clean energy load shifting at the Alliance Redwoods conference venue, which is in a high wildfire risk zone in Occidental, California.