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

(a) Short title: This section may be called the "United States Energy Storage Competitiveness Act of 2007."
(b) Definitions: "Council" means the Energy Storage Advisory Council created under (e). "Compressed air energy storage" means storing energy by compressing air for an electricity-grid application. "Electric drive vehicle" means (A) a vehicle using an electric motor for all or part of its motive power, including battery-electric, hybrid-electric, plug-in hybrid-electric, fuel-cell, plug-in fuel-cell, and rail vehicles; or (B) mobile equipment using an electric motor to replace an internal-combustion engine for all or part of its work. "Islanding" means a distributed generator or storage device continues powering a location when the primary source supplies no electricity. "Flywheel" means a device storing rotational kinetic energy for a grid application. "Microgrid" means an integrated system of connected loads and distributed resources, including generators and storage devices, that can operate with the utility grid or intentionally as an island. "Self-healing grid" means a grid that can automatically anticipate and respond to disturbances, including isolating failed parts, while optimizing service to customers. "Spinning reserve services" means generating capacity above the amount needed for peak demand. "Ultracapacitor" means storage with a conventional capacitor's comparable power density but energy density several orders greater.
(c) Program: The Secretary^* must conduct research, development, and demonstrations supporting United States global competitiveness in storage for electric-drive vehicles, stationary uses, and electricity transmission and distribution.
(d) Coordination: The Secretary must coordinate relevant work with appropriate federal agencies, including Transportation.
(e) Advisory Council: (1) Within 90 days after December 19, 2007, the Secretary must create the Council. (2) It must have at least 15 people appointed by the Secretary based on National Academy of Sciences recommendations; it must mainly represent the United States storage industry; and the Secretary chooses its chair from those appointees. (3) It must meet at least yearly, and title 5, chapter 10 applies to its meetings. (4) Within one year after that date and every five years afterward, the Council and Secretary must make a five-year plan integrating basic and applied research so the United States keeps a competitive domestic industry in the listed applications. (5) Every two years the Council must assess the Department's performance against the plan goals and recommend specific programs or activities to start or end to meet them.
(f) Basic research: (1) The Secretary must research storage for the listed applications, including materials design; synthesis and characterization; electrode-active materials, including electrolytes and bioelectrolytes; surface and interface dynamics; modeling and simulation; and thermal behavior and life-degradation mechanisms. (2) With the Council, the Secretary must coordinate Department nanoscience centers so its storage research centers remain globally competitive. (3) Besides funding National Laboratories, the Secretary must fund and coordinate public, private, and academic stakeholders.
(g) Applied research: The Secretary must research ultracapacitors, flywheels, batteries and battery systems including flow batteries, compressed-air systems, power-conditioning electronics, storage manufacturing, thermal management, and hydrogen as a storage medium. Funding must also reach and be coordinated with public, private, and academic stakeholders.
(h) Research centers: (1) Through competition, the Secretary must establish no more than four centers translating basic research into applied technologies. (2) The Department's Under Secretary for Science manages them. (3) Each participant must agree that its work advances successful United States competition in global storage markets. (4) Centers must advance the Council's plans. (5) A national laboratory, as defined in section 15801, may participate, including through a cooperative research and development agreement as defined in 15 U.S.C. 3710a(d). (6) Section 13293 may apply to projects funded under this subsection. (7) Consistent with the cited patent and energy laws, the Secretary may require for a new invention that (A) an industrial participant active in a federally funded storage center gets the first option to negotiate reasonable, nonexclusive licenses and royalties with the owner^*, at least in storage technologies; (B) when industry participates, for two years after the invention, the patent holder cannot negotiate with nonparticipants and must negotiate in good faith with interested participants; and (C) other terms needed to speed commercialization and United States competitiveness apply.
(i) Storage demonstrations: (1) The Secretary must conduct new advanced-storage demonstrations. (2) They must be regionally diverse and expand Department technology demonstrations. (3) To the maximum practicable extent, participants must include rural cooperatives, investor-owned and municipal utilities, storage and electric-drive manufacturers, renewable-energy producers, state^* or local energy offices, the fuel-cell industry, and higher-education institutions. (4) Each demonstration must include at least one objective: improve microgrid or islanding feasibility or rural transmission and distribution reliability; integrate storage with a self-healing grid; secure emergency infrastructure and backup power; integrate renewable generation at or away from its source; provide ancillary services such as spinning reserves; improve power-conversion systems so they are smarter, efficient, communicative with other inverters, and voltage-controlling; optimize transmission, distribution, and power quality, including overloaded lines and transformer or substation maintenance; manage home, business, and grid peak loads; or store energy during nonpeak generation to use grid assets better.
(j) Vehicle demonstrations: (1) The Secretary must demonstrate electric-drive vehicle storage technology. (2) Consortia may include storage manufacturers and suppliers, vehicle manufacturers, rural cooperatives, investor-owned, municipal, and rural utilities, state and local governments, metropolitan transportation authorities, and higher-education institutions. (3) Demonstrations must include at least one of: novel high-capacity, efficient storage, charging, and controls with data on battery life, capacity, and power delivery; advanced onboard management and cooling; integration on passenger, commercial, or nonroad prototype drivetrains; lower-cost manufacturing technologies and processes; integration with distribution and smart meters; or controls minimizing emissions when clean diesel is part of a plug-in hybrid.
(k) Electric drive vehicle battery second-life applications and recycling: (1) Definitions: (A) "Battery recycling and second-life applications program" means the program established under paragraph (3). (B) "Critical material" has the meaning given in 30 U.S.C. 1606(a). (C) "Economically distressed area" means an area described in section 3161(a) of this title. (D) "Electric drive vehicle battery" means any battery that is a motive power source for an electric drive vehicle. (E) "Eligible entity" means an entity described in any of paragraphs (1) through (5) of section 16353(b) of this title.
(2) The Secretary must conduct research, development, and demonstrations of (A) second-life applications for electric-drive-vehicle batteries used to power those vehicles; and (B) technologies and processes for final recycling and disposal of those batteries.
(3)(A) The Secretary must establish the battery recycling and second-life applications program, award grants under (D), and carry out other activities under this paragraph. (B) Its purposes are to improve recycling and second-use adoption rates; make batteries easier to recycle through better design and adaptability; establish alternative supply chains for critical materials found in batteries; reduce the costs of manufacturing, installation, purchase, operation, and maintenance; and improve the environmental impact of recycling. (C) The Secretary must address near-term challenges of up to 2 years, mid-term challenges of up to 5 years, and long-term challenges of up to 10 years.
(D)(i) The Secretary must competitively award multiyear grants to eligible entities after merit review. The grants must support (I) research, development, testing, and evaluation of ways to increase the rate and productivity of battery recycling; and (II) research, development, and demonstration projects creating innovative and practical ways to increase recycling and second use, including (aa) more efficient recycling and maximum recovery of critical materials for new products; (bb) expanded uses for recovered critical materials; (cc) design and construction that make batteries easier to take apart and recycle; (dd) design, construction, tools, and techniques that extend battery life, including safe second use; (ee) strategies that increase consumer acceptance of and participation in recycling; (ff) battery-chemistry improvements and changes that reduce recycling-processing costs without sacrificing front-end performance; (gg) second use, including uses outside the automotive industry; and (hh) commercialization and scale-up of recycling technologies.
(ii) The Secretary must give priority to projects in geographically diverse regions; projects with high-volume battery-recycling business plans; projects supporting advanced manufacturing technologies that could improve United States competitiveness in international battery manufacturing; projects with the greatest potential to reduce consumer costs and promote accessibility and community implementation of demonstrated technologies; projects increasing disclosure and transparency of information to consumers; projects developing or demonstrating projects in economically distressed areas; and other relevant priorities the Secretary considers appropriate. (iii) Within 90 days after November 15, 2021, and annually afterward, the Secretary must conduct a national solicitation for applications. (iv) The Secretary must publish project^* results through best practices^* for the battery manufacturing, design, installation, refurbishing, or recycling industries; coordination with information programs about general electronic-device recycling; and public educational materials, produced with State and local governments or nonprofit organizations, about battery-recycling and second-life problems and solutions.
(E) The Secretary must coordinate and leverage complementary Department resources. (F)(i) The Secretary must study viable United States market opportunities for battery recycling, second use, and manufacturing. (ii) Within 1 year after November 15, 2021, the Secretary must report the study results to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and any other relevant congressional committee. The report must describe (I) the ability of relevant businesses or other entities to competitively manufacture and recycle batteries in the United States; (II) existing United States manufacturer battery-recycling and second-use practices and plans; (III) barriers to battery recycling in the United States; (IV) opportunities and barriers in United States and international battery supply chains, including with allies and trading partners; (V) job-creation opportunities and needed employee skills in battery recycling and manufacturing; (VI) policy recommendations for improving United States battery manufacturing and recycling; (VII) recommendations for lowering logistics costs and improving coordination and efficiency in removing, collecting, transporting, storing, and disassembling batteries; (VIII) recommendations for coordinating with other Federal agencies to improve United States recycling rates; (IX) an aggressive 2-year target and plan to improve United States manufacturing and recycling competitiveness, beginning during the 90-day period after the report is submitted; and (X) future research, development, and demonstration needs in battery manufacturing, recycling, and related areas, as determined by the Secretary. (G) Within 3 years after the report is submitted, and every 4 years afterward, the Secretary must independently review and publicly report on grant progress toward the report’s recommendations and targets.
(l) Cost sharing: The Secretary must carry out all programs established under this section in accordance with section 16352 of this title.
(m) Merit review of proposals: The Secretary must carry out the programs under (i), (j), and (k) in accordance with section 16353 of this title.
(n) Coordination and nonduplication: To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary must coordinate activities under this section with other Department programs and laboratories and other Federal research programs.
(o) Review by National Academy of Sciences: On the business day that is 5 years after December 19, 2007, the Secretary must offer to enter into an arrangement with the National Academy of Sciences to assess the Department’s performance in carrying out this section.
(p) Authorization of appropriations: Congress may appropriate $50 million for each fiscal year 2009–2018 for basic research under (f); $80 million for each fiscal year 2009–2018 for applied research under (g); $100 million for each fiscal year 2009–2018 for research centers under (h); $30 million for each fiscal year 2009–2018 for storage demonstrations under (i); $30 million for each fiscal year 2009–2018 for vehicle demonstrations under (j); and $200 million for fiscal years 2022–2026 for battery recycling and second-life applications under (k).
(q) Critical material recycling and reuse research, development, and demonstration program: (1) "Critical material" has the meaning given in section 1606 of title 30. "Critical material recycling" means physically or chemically separating and recovering critical materials embedded in an energy storage system so they can be reused in other technologies. (2) Within 180 days after December 27, 2020, the Secretary must establish a research, development, and demonstration program for recycling and reusing critical materials in energy storage systems. (3) The Secretary must conduct research, development, and demonstrations on (A) technologies, process improvements, and design optimizations that facilitate recycling, including separation and sorting of components and extraction, recovery, and reuse of critical materials; technologies and methods that reduce emissions and environmental effects, including disposal of toxic reagents and byproducts; technologies enabling extraction, recovery, and reuse of energy storage systems from electric vehicles and recycling of critical materials from those vehicles; and safe transport, storage, and disposal of systems containing critical materials, including recovered waste and components; and (B) nontechnical barriers to collection and recycling, including improving consumer education, acceptance, and participation. (4) Within 2 years after December 27, 2020, and every 3 years afterward, the Secretary must report to the House Committees on Science, Space, and Technology and on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, summarizing the program’s activities, findings, and progress.