Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Long Duration Energy Storage March | 2023 This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Long Duration Energy Storage Comments The Department of Energy welcomes input and feedback on the contents of this Pathway to Commercial Liftoff. Please direct all inquiries and input to liftoff@hq.doe.gov. Input and feedback should not include business sensitive information, trade secrets, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information. Please note that input and feedback provided is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Authors Authors of the Long Duration Energy Storage Pathway to Commercial Liftoff: Office of Technology Transitions: Katheryn (Kate) Scott, Stephen Hendrickson Office of Policy: Nicole Ryan Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations: Andrew Dawson, Kenneth Kort Office of Electricity: Benjamin Shrager, Vinod Siberry Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: Paul Spitsen Argonne National Laboratory: Sue Babinec, Patrick Balducci, Zhi Zhou Cross-cutting Department of Energy leadership for the Pathways to Commercial Liftoff effort: Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations: David Crane, Kelly Cummins, Melissa Klembara Office of Technology Transitions: Vanessa Chan, Lucia Tian Loan Programs Office: Jigar Shah, Jonah Wagner Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge analytical support from Argonne National Laboratory and McKinsey & Company; as well as valuable guidance and input provided during the preparation of this Pathway to Commercial Liftoff from: Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations: Catherine Clark, Caroline Grey, Jason Munster, Brian O'Donnchadha Office of Technology Transitions: Marcos Gonzalez Harsha, Hannah Murdoch, James Fritz, Anna Siefken, Erik Hadland Loan Programs Office: Julie Kozeracki, Ramsey Fahs, Kevin Johnson, Carolyn Davidson, Leslie Rich, Christopher Creed Office of Policy: Carla Frisch, Steve Capanna, Elke Hodson, Colin Cunliff, Ravahn Samati, Jay Vaingankar, Piper O’Keefe Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: Alejandro Moreno, Courtney Grosvenor, Sam Baldwin, Paul Spitsen, Diane Bauer, Changwon Suh, Sam Bockenhauer, Matthew Bauer, Sunita Satyapal, Heather Croteau, Lauren Boyd, Jeffrey Bowman, Sean Porse, Tien Duong Office of Electricity: Gene Rodrigues, Eric Hsieh Office of the Secretary: Kate Gordon Office of Economic Impact and Diversity: Shalanda Baker Office of Energy Jobs: Betony Jones, Christy Veeder Office of International Affairs: Julie Cerqueira, Matt Manning Office of the General Counsel: Avi Zevin, Brian Lally, Ami Grace-Tardy Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains: David Howell, Jake Ward, Mallory Clites Office of Science: Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Craig Henderson, John Vertrano Argonne National Laboratory: Aymeric Rousseau, Tom Fanning Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Long Duration Energy Storage Table of Contents LDES Executive Summary 1 Chapter 1: Introduction and Objectives 6 Section 1.a: Objectives 6 Section 1.b: Approach and Methodology 7 Section 1.c: Source of Insight 7 Section 1.d: Scope/Definition 7 Section 1.e: Technology role 8 Current State- LDES Technologies and Markets 9 Section 2.a: Value Proposition 9 Chapter 2: Chapter 3: Chapter 4: Chapter 5: Section 2.b: Technology Landscape 11 Section 2.c: Use Cases 15 Section 2.d: Competitive Landscape 16 Section 2.e: Techno-economics 21 Pathways to Commercial Scale 23 Section 3.a: Implied Capital Formation 23 Section 3.b: Broader Implications of LDES Scale-up 24 Challenges to Commercialization and Potential Solutions 28 Section 4.a: Overview of Challenges and Cons