The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative CSP Program is pleased to announce the Concentrating Solar Power: Efficiently Leveraging Equilibrium Mechanisms for Engineering New Thermochemical Storage (CSP:ELEMENTS) funding opportunity, which will provide up to $20 million toward CSP thermochemical energy storage (TCES) research and development. TCES presents opportunities for storing the sun’s energy at high densities in the form of chemical bonds. CSP: ELEMENTS is focused on leveraging the science and engineering that drive chemical equilibria to develop and demonstrate TCES systems with the capability for a minimum of 6 hours of thermal storage for use in utility-scale CSP electricity generation.
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Key Dates
- Required Concept Paper Deadline: 5 p.m. ET, May 23, 2013
- Full Application Deadline: 5 p.m. ET, July 23, 2013
Description
This program supports research and development of TCES systems that can validate a cost of ≤$15 per kilowatt-hour-thermal (kWht) and operate at temperatures ≥650°C. Successful projects will culminate in an on-sun test of the TCES system, along with reliable projections of the full-scale performance for the entire integrated storage system through the utilization of validated performance models developed as part of the R&D effort.
There are two topic areas of research for TCES systems under this funding opportunity. Topic Area 1 is for proposals to develop complete TCES systems that address all of the major technical focus areas below. Topic Area 2 is for “Seedlings” to focus on one or a few areas of major technical focus. The major technical focus areas are:
- Efficiency Maximization
- Process Engineering
- Reactor Engineering
- Heat and Mass Transfer
- Catalysis
- Modeling
- Materials
- On-Sun Testing.
For more information and application instructions, visit the CSP: ELEMENTS FOA page