Providing for Further Consideration of H.R. Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KNIGHT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule.

I want to thank the chairman and ranking member for the inclusion of language in the E&W report that would launch a new initiative at the Department of Energy to aggressively drive down costs and improve the performance of grid-scale energy storage technologies.

This report language is similar to the BEST Act, which I sponsored and of which the ranking member is a cosponsor. The BEST Act is a bipartisan authorization bill that directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a moonshot goal of three demonstrations of grid-scale battery storage that will meet aggressive commercialization targets for cost, performance, and durability.

This concept is modeled after the success of the DOE's SunShot Initiative, which brought down the cost of solar energy by 75 percent in less than 5 years.

One of the biggest challenges to greater incorporation of new energy sources into the power grid is the lack of cost-competitive grid-scale solutions. Intermittent energy sources cannot reach their potential without commercially viable storage facilities. We all know this.

Much of the energy we produce is lost, diminishing utility productivity. While the DOE has issued grants to pursue better battery storage, funding has been too dispersed to produce the breakthroughs needed to transform our electricity grid. This initiative will leverage work currently being done in the Office of Science to set a moonshot goal for energy storage technology.

In a further sign of the merit of these demonstrations, the Senate E&W bill also includes very similar report language.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source