Project Grant DESC0020775

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) Project Grant award provides $274,723 to Earthen Energy Inc. for the development of a Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage (PB-TES) system using supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) as the heat transfer fluid. The project aims to create a scalable, cost-effective energy storage solution to improve grid stability and enable greater integration of renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Key objectives...

Federal Cooperative Agreement Summary Durion, Inc. received a $1.39 million Cooperative Agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under the Renewable Energy Research and Development program (CFDA 81.087) to develop and validate a low-cost thermal energy storage (TES) system for behind-the-meter (BTM) concentrated solar power (CSP) applications. The Solar Tier 2 project, which commenced on October 1, 2025 and will conclude on December 31,...

The Southwest Research Institute received a $250,000 Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management to complete a conceptual design and optimization study of a commercial-scale Liquid Air Combined Cycle system integrated with a natural gas combustion turbine. The study will be carried out in collaboration with sub-awardee Pintail Power LLC. The award supports the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management's Fossil Energy Research...

ZYD Energy Inc. received a $199,743 project grant award from the Department of Energy Office of Science under the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (CFDA 81.049). The award will support MODEL-BASED PREDICTIVE CONTROL AND SENSOR TECHNOLOGY FOR PHASE-CHANGE THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS from June 27, 2022 through June 26, 2023. The project aims to develop model-based predictive control and sensor technologies to optimize phase-change thermal energy storage systems, in line with the...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $275,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project grant to Fourth Power, Inc., a minority-owned small business, to develop an energy storage technology that stores electricity as heat and converts it back to electricity using thermophotovoltaics (TPV). The goal is to create a low-cost battery system that can decouple power and energy, enabling discharge durations between 1-100 hours, which is not currently achievable with other...

This $299,999 federal Project Grant was awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to Northwestern University. The grant aims to develop experimental and theoretical knowledge on the performance and impacts of using geothermal structures like building basements, parking garages, and metro stations as thermal batteries for renewable energy storage. This novel approach could enable the widespread decarbonization of buildings and infrastructure...

The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded Energy Concepts Company, LLC $175,000 under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program to develop an innovative refrigeration cycle for small-scale refrigeration. Energy Concepts will modify an existing propane-fired diffusion absorption chiller to enable operation using heat from renewable energy sources like solar thermal, geothermal, waste heat,...

This $275,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program will support Community Energy Labs Inc.'s development of an advanced building management system using model predictive control and machine learning techniques. The system aims to automate complex aspects of energy-efficient building control to simplify setup and implementation for small to mid-sized commercial building owners. By reducing costs and complexity, the technology...

Harvest Thermal, Inc. was awarded a $1,000,000 cooperative agreement from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program to develop a low-emissions heating and hot water system. The 24-month project will address technical risks to enable large-scale deployment of residential heating and hot water load shifting using highly efficient heat pump systems. Harvest Thermal will systematically test system performance, reliability, and failure modes to...

Active Energy Systems Inc. was awarded a $999,444 cooperative agreement from the National Science Foundation Division of Industrial Innovation under the Engineering (CFDA 47.041) federal grant program. The award will support the company's SBIR Phase II project to develop grid-scale electricity storage from waste heat over a two-year period from May 2021 through April 2023. As part of its Engineering program goal to foster innovation in engineering research and economic strength, this award...