42 U.S.C. § 17231 — Energy storage competitiveness

(a) Short title. This section can be called the "United States Energy Storage Competitiveness Act of 2007." (b) Definitions. The section defines several terms it uses later: "Council" means the Energy Storage Advisory Council created in subsection (e). "Compressed air energy storage" means storing energy on the power grid by compressing air. "Electric drive vehicle" means a vehicle, rail vehicle, or piece of mobile equipment that uses an electric motor for some or all of its power, including battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell types. "Islanding" means a generator or storage device keeps powering a place even when the main grid's power is gone. "Flywheel" means a device on the grid that stores spinning energy. "Microgrid" means a connected system of power users and power sources (including generators and storage) that can run either alongside the regular utility grid or on its own in islanding mode. "Self-healing grid" means a grid that can sense and respond to problems on its own, including isolating broken parts, while keeping service running well. "Spinning reserve services" means extra generating capacity kept on hand beyond what is needed for peak demand. "Ultracapacitor" means a storage device with power density like a regular capacitor but with much higher energy density. (c) Program. The Secretary must run a research, development, and demonstration program so the United States stays globally competitive in energy storage for electric vehicles, buildings and other stationary uses, and the power grid. (d) Coordination. The Secretary must coordinate this work with other federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation. (e) Energy Storage Advisory Council. (1) The Secretary must create the Council within 90 days after December 19, 2007. (2) The Council must have at least 15 members, chosen by the Secretary based on recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, and most members must come from the energy storage industry. The Secretary picks a Chairperson from among the members. (3) The Council must meet at least once a year, and federal open-meeting rules (chapter 10 of title 5) apply to those meetings. (4) Within 1 year of December 19, 2007, and every 5 years after that, the Council and the Secretary must write a 5-year plan for research that keeps the United States competitive in energy storage for vehicles, buildings, and the grid. (5) Every 2 years the Council must check how well the Department is meeting the plan's goals and recommend to the Secretary which programs to start or stop. (f) Basic research program. (1) The Secretary must run basic research on energy storage covering: materials design; materials synthesis and characterization; electrode-active materials, including electrolytes; surface and interface behavior; modeling and simulation; and thermal behavior and how storage devices wear out over time. (2) The Secretary, working with the Council, must coordinate the Department's nanoscience centers so the Department's storage research stays globally competitive. (3) Besides funding National Laboratories, the Secretary must give funds to a range of public, private, and academic groups for this work. (g) Applied research program. (1) The Secretary must run applied research covering: ultracapacitors; flywheels; batteries and battery systems, including flow batteries; compressed air storage; power conditioning electronics; manufacturing methods for storage systems; thermal management systems; and hydrogen as a way to store energy. (2) As with basic research, funding must go beyond National Laboratories to public, private, and academic groups. (h) Energy storage research centers. (1) The Secretary must set up, through competitive bidding, no more than 4 research centers to turn basic research into working technology. (2) The Department's Under Secretary for Science manages the centers. (3) Anyone joining a center must sign an agreement promising their work will help the United States compete in global energy storage markets. (4) Centers must do work that supports the Council's 5-year plans. (5) National Laboratories may take part in a center, including through cooperative research and development agreements. (6) Trade-secret disclosure rules in section 13293 of this title may apply to projects funded through a center. (7) For new inventions made under this subsection, the Secretary may require: (A) an industrial participant in the relevant center gets first chance to negotiate a nonexclusive license, at reasonable royalty terms the Secretary sets, at least for energy storage uses; (B) for the first 2 years after an invention is made, if one or more industrial participants are in the center, the patent holder cannot license to anyone who isn't a participant, and must negotiate in good faith with any participant who is interested; and (C) other terms the Secretary sets to speed up turning inventions into products. (i) Energy storage systems demonstrations. (1) The Secretary must run new demonstrations of advanced energy storage systems. (2) The demonstrations must be spread across different regions and build on the Department's existing demonstration program. (3) As much as practical, the Secretary must include stakeholders such as rural electric cooperatives, investor-owned utilities, municipal utilities, storage manufacturers, electric vehicle manufacturers, the renewable energy industry, state or local energy offices, the fuel cell industry, and colleges and universities. (4) Each demonstration must address one or more goals: helping microgrids or islanding, or transmission and distribution, work better in rural areas; combining storage with a self-healing grid; using storage to protect emergency infrastructure and back up power for consumers; combining storage with renewable energy sources; using storage for services like spinning reserves; making power conversion systems smarter and better at working together; using storage to fix overloaded lines and maintain equipment; using storage to manage peak demand for homes, businesses, and the grid; and using storage to make better use of existing grid equipment during low-demand periods. (j) Vehicle energy storage demonstration. (1) The Secretary must run demonstrations of electric vehicle storage technology. (2) These are carried out through groups (consortia) that may include storage manufacturers and their suppliers, vehicle manufacturers, rural and investor-owned and municipal utilities, state and local governments, metropolitan transportation authorities, and universities. (3) The program must demonstrate one or more of: high-capacity, high-efficiency storage, charging, and control systems, plus data on how well batteries perform; advanced onboard energy management and battery cooling systems; putting these systems into prototype vehicles, including their drivetrains; new ways to cut manufacturing costs; connecting vehicle technology with the electric grid and smart meters; and control systems that cut emissions when clean diesel engines are paired with plug-in hybrid systems. (k) Electric drive vehicle battery second-life applications and recycling. (1) This subsection defines: the "battery recycling and second-life applications program" created by paragraph (3); "critical material" (as defined elsewhere in the U.S. Code); "economically distressed area" (as defined elsewhere); "electric drive vehicle battery," meaning any battery that powers an electric drive vehicle; and "eligible entity" (as defined elsewhere). (2) The Secretary must run research, development, and demonstration on: (A) second-life uses for batteries that already powered electric vehicles; and (B) final recycling and disposal of those batteries. (3) Electric drive vehicle battery recycling and second-life applications program. (A) The Secretary must set up this program to award grants and carry out related activities. (B) Its purposes are to raise recycling and second-use rates; make batteries easier to recycle; build alternative U.S. supply chains for the critical materials inside batteries; lower the cost of making, installing, buying, running, and maintaining batteries; and make recycling processes more environmentally friendly. (C) The Secretary must address near-term (up to 2 years), mid-term (up to 5 years), and long-term (up to 10 years) recycling challenges. (D)(i) The Secretary must award competitive, multiyear grants to eligible entities for research and testing to improve recycling rates, and for projects that address things like: technology that boosts recycling efficiency and recovers more critical materials; new uses for recovered materials; product designs that make batteries easier to take apart and recycle; designs and techniques that extend battery life and allow safe second use; ways to get consumers to accept and take part in recycling; battery chemistry changes that cut recycling costs without hurting performance; second uses outside the auto industry; and scaling up recycling businesses. (ii) In choosing grantees, the Secretary must favor projects that are spread across different regions; have solid plans to commercialize at high volume; support advanced manufacturing that helps the U.S. compete internationally; are likely to lower consumer costs and reach more communities; increase transparency to consumers; support economically distressed areas; and meet other priorities the Secretary sets. (iii) The Secretary must hold a national solicitation for grant applications within 90 days after November 15, 2021, and every year after that. (iv) The Secretary must share project results through best practices for the battery industry, coordination with general electronics-recycling programs, and educational materials made with state, local, or nonprofit partners. (E) The Secretary must coordinate this program with other related Department efforts. (F)(i) The Secretary must study the real market opportunities for U.S. battery recycling, second-use, and manufacturing. (ii) Within 1 year after November 15, 2021, the Secretary must send Congress a report on that study, covering: U.S. businesses' ability to competitively manufacture and recycle batteries; existing manufacturer recycling practices and plans; barriers to recycling; supply-chain opportunities and barriers at home and with allies; job-creation opportunities and the skills workers will need; policy recommendations; ways to cut logistics costs and improve coordination for handling used batteries; opportunities to coordinate with other federal agencies; a 2-year target and plan to start within 90 days of the report; and future research needs. (G) Starting 3 years after that report, and every 4 years after that, the Secretary must publicly review how well the grants are meeting the report's recommendations and targets. (l) Cost sharing. Programs under this section must follow the cost-sharing rules in section 16352 of this title. (m) Merit review. Programs under subsections (i), (j), and (k) must follow the merit-review rules in section 16353 of this title. (n) Coordination and nonduplication. As much as practical, the Secretary must coordinate this section's activities with other Department programs, other federal research programs, and national laboratories, to avoid duplicating work. (o) Review by National Academy of Sciences. On the business day that falls 5 years after December 19, 2007, the Secretary must offer to arrange for the National Academy of Sciences to assess how well the Department carried out this section. (p) Authorization of appropriations. Congress authorized funding for: the basic research program, $50,000,000 a year for fiscal years 2009–2018; the applied research program, $80,000,000 a year for 2009–2018; the research center program, $100,000,000 a year for 2009–2018; the demonstration program, $30,000,000 a year for 2009–2018; the vehicle demonstration program, $30,000,000 a year for 2009–2018; and the battery recycling and second-life program, $200,000,000 total for 2022–2026. (q) Critical material recycling and reuse research, development, and demonstration program. (1) This paragraph defines "critical material" (as defined elsewhere) and "critical material recycling," meaning separating and recovering critical materials from an energy storage system, by physical or chemical means, so they can be reused in other products. (2) Within 180 days after December 27, 2020, the Secretary must set up a program for recycling and reusing critical materials from energy storage systems. (3) Under that program the Secretary must research, develop, and demonstrate: (A) technologies and design changes that make it easier to recycle storage systems, including sorting their parts and recovering critical materials; technologies that reduce the pollution and toxic waste from recycling; technologies to recover storage systems and materials from electric vehicles; and safe ways to transport, store, and dispose of storage systems and recycling waste; and (B) research on non-technical barriers, including how to get consumers to accept and take part in recycling. (4) Within 2 years after December 27, 2020, and every 3 years after that, the Secretary must report to Congress on the program's activities, findings, and progress.