On September 5th, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) opened applications for $100 million in federal funding to support pilot-scale energy storage demonstration projects for non-lithium battery technologies, systems with discharge durations of over 10 hours, and stationary energy storage applications. The aim is to advance the maturity of non-lithium long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies, reduce cost and performance uncertainties, and bolster investor and end-user confidence in the commercial readiness of these technologies. This will facilitate their commercialization and large-scale application to meet the growing demand for grid stability and reliability.

In the funding opportunity announcement issued by OCED, it is planned to fund 5 to 15 projects, with each project receiving a reward of at least $5 million and up to $20 million. Each project must self-fund at least 50% of the costs. Additionally, the program focuses more on pilot demonstrations of non-lithium long-duration energy storage technologies with a discharge duration of ≥10 hours, including flow batteries, compressed air energy storage, gravity energy storage, thermal energy storage, etc. It is明确的 that energy storage technologies using lithium batteries, hydrogen, or ammonia as storage media, and those with a storage duration of less than 10 hours, are excluded.

From the release of the intent notice in early July to the opening of the funding application, the rapid advancement in just two months highlights the U.S. Department of Energy's determination and emphasis on promoting the development of non-lithium long-duration energy storage technologies.

This year, the United States has placed great emphasis on the development of long-duration energy storage technologies, especially in the field of non-lithium technologies: in June, New York State provided $5 million in funding for long-duration energy storage projects through competitive bidding, supporting long-duration energy storage solutions of 10-100 hours; in August, the U.S. Department of Energy released a cost analysis report on 11 long-duration energy storage technologies, mentioning that by 2030, the levelized cost of flow batteries, as well as pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage systems, could be reduced to below $0.05/kWh; the day after the report was released, it was announced that in addition to providing $100 million in funding opportunities for stationary energy storage and non-lithium energy storage technologies, it also includes the establishment of a $75 million Grid Storage Launchpad research facility at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory campus in Richland, Washington, aimed at assisting in the development and testing of energy storage technologies; immediately following, U.S. energy storage startup Form Energy announced the groundbreaking of the first 1.5 MW iron-air battery energy storage project with a duration of 100 hours in Minnesota.

As the demand for clean and stable energy supply continues to rise, long-duration energy storage technology pathways of 10h and above will become a direction actively explored and developed by countries around the world. The sulfur-iron flow battery energy storage system independently developed by ZH Energy Storage, as an innovative breakthrough in the field of flow battery technology, has an electrolyte cost that is only 1/10 of vanadium, significantly reducing costs by leveraging the economic advantages of iron and sulfur. As one of the earliest companies to commercialize sulfur-iron batteries globally, ZH Energy Storage can achieve application scenarios covering energy storage durations in the 6-12h range, under the premise of intrinsic safety and low cost, providing a new solution for the development of global long-duration energy storage technology.