February 1, 2012: Batteries and Energy Storage Hub Funding Opportunity Announcement is posted . Required Letters of Intent are due March 1; Full applications are due May 31. For more information go to: https://www.fedconnect.net/FedConnect/?doc=DE-FOA-0000559&agency=DOE
October 21, 2011. The Office of Science held the 2011 Batteries and Energy Storage Research Information Meeting to provide information regarding the current DOE research on energy storage and receive comments from the public on potential research directions for a Batteries and Energy Storage Energy Innovation Hub. Meeting Web Site
Two of the five DOE Energy Innovation Hubs with appropriations in FY 2012 are managed through the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program of the Office of Science (SC). The Hubs focus multiple teams of researchers-each working in separate but collaborative research areas-on overcoming the related scientific barriers to development of a complete energy system that has potential for implementation into a transformative energy technology. The two Hubs funded and managed by SC/BES will bring together teams of experts from multiple disciplines to focus on two grand challenges in energy: (1) Fuels from Sunlight, a Hub established in FY 2010 and (2) Batteries and Energy Storage, a new Hub in the FY 2012 appropriation.
The Fuels from Sunlight Hub is the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP), which was initiated in FY 2010 and is led by the California Institute of Technology in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and other California institutions. The mission of JCAP is: To demonstrate a scalable, manufacturable solar-fuels generator using Earth-abundant elements, that, with no wires, robustly produces fuel from the sun ten times more efficiently than (current) crops. Basic research has provided enormous advances in our understanding of the subtle and complex chemistry behind the biological conversion of sunlight into fuels during natural photosynthesis. Yet we still lack sufficient knowledge to design solar-fuel generation systems with the required efficiency, scalability, and sustainability to be economically viable. The Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub was designed to attack just such a grand challenge as it develops and demonstrates prototype solar-fuels generators that produce fuel through artificial photosynthesis using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide as inputs. Acting in its role as coordinator for the scientific and engineering communities, JCAP incorporates research results from many individual laboratories (including 20 DOE-sponsored Energy Frontier Research Centers) to accelerate the pace of technological development toward the creation of a direct solar fuels industry.
JCAP Web Site| JCAP Brochure 
(450KB)| JCAP Technical Summary (108KB) | JCAP Fact Sheet (177KB)
JCAP AP Futures Highlight (108KB)|
The Batteries and Energy Storage Hub is funded in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2012 at $20,000,000 minus the required SBIR/STTR allocations. Batteries and electrical energy storage technologies are pivotal and straddle two major energy sectors: transportation and the grid. Today's electrical energy storage approaches suffer from limited energy and power capacities, lower-than-desired rates of charge and discharge, cycle life limitations, low abuse tolerance, high cost, and poor performance at high or low temperatures. The Batteries and Energy Storage Hub will accelerate the development of energy storage solutions that are well beyond current capabilities and approach theoretical limits. This development will be enabled by cross-disciplinary R&D focused on the barriers to transforming electrochemical energy storage, including the exploration of new materials, devices, systems, and novel approaches for transportation and utility-scale storage. An FOA fully describing the research opportunities for the Batteries and Energy Storage Hub was issued on February 1, 2012.