The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is issuing its third open funding opportunity announcement, OPEN 2015, for up to $125 million. OPEN 2015 will support energy research and development projects from America’s top innovators for disruptive new technologies in transportation and stationary applications.
“OPEN 2015 highlights ARPA-E’s commitment to transformational energy innovations,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. “We are excited to announce this open solicitation to support the development of a broad range of disruptive technologies, advancing our all-of-the-above energy strategy to ensure a secure, affordable and sustainable American energy future.”
ARPA-E has issued previous OPEN solicitations in 2009 and 2012. Open solicitations ensure that ARPA-E can support transformational projects outside the scope of existing ARPA-E focused programs. The projects selected under OPEN 2015 will pursue novel approaches to energy innovation across the full spectrum of energy applications.
For more information on OPEN 2015, please visit: http://bit.ly/OPEN2015.
DNV GL released a statement after the announcement that said it would support ARPA-E to validate the performance of ARPA-E funded grid-storage and distributed energy (micro-grid) technologies over the next four years.
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Storage technologies will play a key role in the modernization of electric grids
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Grid-storage enables cost-effective integration of increasing amounts of renewable and distributed energy
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Objective testing and transparent evaluation of new grid-storage technologies needed to advance the industry
Many of these technologies are still at an early stage and require more data on their performance, reliability, and safety through extended use under realistic grid conditions, DNV GL stated.
Together with its partners NY-BEST, Group NIRE and CAR Technologies, DNV GL will provide a combination of third-party testing facilities, innovative testing and analysis methodologies and expert oversight to enable objective and transparent evaluation of existing ARPA-E grid-storage technologies through a program called Cycling Hardware to Analyze and Ready Grid-Scale Electricity Storage (CHARGES).
DNV GL will perform laboratory testing at the DNV GL BEST Test and Commercialization Center in Rochester, New York. DNV GL manages this lab in a partnership with NY-BEST. The storage technologies will be field tested in Group NIRE’s extensive micro-grid which includes wind turbines connected to the local distribution grid. In addition to testing, DNV GL will harness its Microgrid Optimizer (MGO) tool to model storage performance, bringing together modeling and testing under one program.
