The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $30 million in funding (DE-FOA-0003162) to develop next-generation, high-energy storage solutions to help accelerate the electrification of the aviation, railroad, and maritime transportation sectors.
Transportation is responsible for approximately 29% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually in the United States. Light duty vehicles—passenger and small commercial vehicles—account for 58% of transportation GHG emissions, and battery-powered electric vehicles have emerged as a lower-emissions solution for many applications.
The majority of the remaining 42% of transportation GHG emissions is attributed to long-distance trucking (23%), aviation (8%), railroads (2%), and maritime (3%). Batteries and fuel cells represent potential solutions. However, for heavy-duty vehicles, vessels and aircraft, the maximum achievable energy density for both existing and anticipated next-generation electrochemical energy storage technologies is currently too low.
The Pioneering Railroad, Oceanic and Plane ELectrification (PROPEL-1K) program—managed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)—aims to support the research and development of alternative approaches to energy storage to ultimately achieve a >4x improvement compared to existing state-of-the-art (SoA) options.
The technical scope encompasses electrochemical and/or chemical solutions that do not require hydrocarbon-based fuels (fossil or synthetic). The targets for these energy storage system (ESS) solutions are 1000 Watt-hour per kilogram (Wh/kg) and 1000 Watt-hour per liter (Wh/L) (so-called “1K” technologies) at the end of life (EOL) and at the net ESS level.
Of particular interest are technologies that are not mere extensions of current mainstream electrochemical device thinking or short-term technology road maps. The primary program objective is to develop exceptionally high-energy storage solutions, capable of catalyzing broad electrification of the aviation, railroad, and maritime transportation sectors.
