The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed by the US Senate, calling for $550 billion in new spending over the next five years. For utility companies, some of the highlights are $73 billion for Grid Modernization and $7.5 billion for EV Charging Infrastructure. Another interesting inclusion is the $65 billion for high-speed internet infrastructure – required for connected homes etc. – and digital equity. The graph below provides an overview of how the bill matches up with the ambitions set by President Biden in the American Jobs Plan (AJP).

Figure 1. Comparing the AJP with the infrastructure investment and jobs act.

The following sections in the Bill pertain specifically to Renewable Energies & Energy Storage:

Renewable Energies

• Sec. 40342 - Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mine Land: this includes solar, micro-grids, geothermal, carbon capture, energy storage technologies or advanced nuclear technologies to demonstrate the technical and economical viability of carrying out clean energy projects. To be eligible for participation in the program, the clean energy project shall demonstrate a reasonable expectation of commercial viability providing a considerable amount of jobs in economically distressed areas. The grant is of $500 million for the period of 2022-2026.
• Sec. 41007 - Renewable Energy Projects:
  • Wind Energy - It has been authorized to be appropriated by the Secretary $60 million for the period 2022-2025 for the research, development, demonstration, and commercialization activities of wind energy technologies as specified in the Wind Energy Technology Program in the 42 U.S.C. 16237 (b)(2) and $40 million to assist eligible entities for research, development, and demonstration, and commercialization projects to create innovative and practical approaches to increase the reuse and recycling of wind energy technologies (as specified in 42 U.S.C. 16237 (b)(4)).
  • Solar Energy - It has been authorized to be appropriated by the Secretary $40 million for the period 2022-2025 for the research, development, demonstration, and commercialization activities of solar energy technologies as specified in the Solar Energy Technology Program in the 42 U.S.C. 16238 (b)(2), $20 million to assist eligible entities for research, development, demonstration, and commercialization projects to advance new solar energy manufacturing technologies and techniques (as specified in 42 U.S.C. 16238 (b)(3))) and $20 million to create innovative and practical approaches to increase the reuse and recycling of solar energy technologies (as specified in 42 U.S.C. 16238 (b)(4)).

In addition to these sections, there are several sections on Hydroelectric Production (Sec. 40331 & 40333) to maintain existing incentives as defined in 42 U.S.C. 15881 and hydroelectric efficiency improvement incentives (Sec. 40332).

Energy Storage

• Sec. 40334 - Pumped Storage Hydropower Wind and Solar Integration and System reliability initiative: To be eligible for financial assistance the project shall be designed to provide not less than 1 GW of storage capacity, be able to provide energy and capacity for use in more than 1 organized electricity market, be able to store electricity generated by intermittent renewable electricity projects located on Tribal land and have received a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Last, the entity shall provide matching funds equal or greater than the amount of financial assistance to be provided. The amount authorized for this section is of $2 million for each of fiscal years from 2022 to 2026.
• Sec. 40112 - Demonstration of EV Battery Second-life applications for grid services: In selecting a project, the Secretary will give priority to projects in which the demonstration is paired with 1 or more facilities that could particularly benefit from increased resiliency and lower energy costs, such as a multi-family affordable housing facility, a senior care facility, or a community health center.
• Sec. 40207 - Battery Processing and Manufacturing:
  • Battery Material Processing Grants: The Secretary will establish the Battery Material Processing Grant Program and a Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program with a total budget of $3 billion for the period 2022-2026.
  • Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Prize Competition: The Secretary shall continue to carry out the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Competition of the Department established pursuant to section 24 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 24 3719).
  • For the Battery and critical mineral recycling - research, development and demonstration there is an authorization of appropriations for $60 million for the period 2022-2026 and $15 million for retailers as collection points.
• Sec. 40208 - EV Battery recycling and second-life applications program: The Secretary will carry out a Program awarding multi-year grants (of $200 million for the period 2022-2026) on a competitive, merit-reviewed basis to eligible entities. The Secretary will give priority to projects that re located in geographically diverse regions of the USA, provide the greatest potential to reduce costs for consumers and promote accessibility and community implementation of demonstrated technologies, include business commercialization plans that have the potential for the recycling of electric drive EV batteries at high volume, among others.
• Sec. 40209 - Advanced energy manufacturing and recycling grant program: It has been authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry out the Program $750 millon for the period of 2022-2026 for re-equipping, expanding, or establishing a manufacturing or recycling facility for the production or recycling of renewable sources of energy, electric grid modernization equipment, carbon capture equipment, EV or fuel cell vehicles, maritime vessels or planes, or any equipment for the reduction of green house gas emissions in a particular industry.
• Sec. 41001 - Energy Storage Demonstration Projects: The Secretary will carry out 3 Energy storage demonstration projects not later than September 2023 authorizing a grant for $355 million for the period of 2022-2025. For Long-duration Energy Storage specifically, there is an initiative and joint program for $150 million for 2022-2025.

This bipartisan infrastructure bill includes a total of $1 trillion in investments that are needed to meet President Biden's goal of reducing US greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030 relative to 2005 levels. Still, before landing on the President’s desk, the bill needs to pass both the House and Senate.

The good news is that this past Tuesday, August 24th the House approved a $3.5 trillion budget framework. This passage of the budget framework in a 220-212 vote unlocks a process known as reconciliation, allowing Democrats to pass a broad package of healthcare, education and climate provisions in the Senate without Republican support, so long as all 50 senators in the Democratic caucus back it. Although the democrats didn’t secure an immediate vote on the infrastructure measure, they did pin down a September 27th deadline for it, ending a standoff between centrist Democrats and party leaders over their legislative agenda.

The Bill in itself maintains many of the previous compromises stated in the AJP - it is clear that the USA wants to establish itself as a leader in climate science, innovation, and R&D. And even though the initial $ 100 billion stated in the AJP for grid infrastructure were re-purposed and the final investment announced was of $ 73 billion, there is still investment in the full range of solutions needed to achieve technology breakthroughs and position the USA as a global leader in clean energy technology and clean energy jobs (including utility-scale energy storage, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, advanced nuclear, rare earth element separations, floating offshore wind, biofuel/bioproducts, quantum computing, and electric vehicles).

We have been tackling these topics from Darcy through our Darcy Connect Platform and through our forums. Of our last forums on Long Duration Energy Storage many American companies in the space are participating or applying to some of these research and development programs.

We hope to see you in our next Thermal Energy Storage Forum on September 2nd, and would love to hear your thoughts on the Energy Storage and Renewable Energies policy/funding landscape or any other questions about the Infrastructure Bill in the comments below. We’ll be diving into other areas of the bill – like DER – in future articles.

If you are interested in further coverage of the Bill please follow these links:

• Transportation Electrification
• Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS)