DOE Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize — Phase 1: Design

Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize — Phase 2

Funds teams advancing cost-effective industrial energy storage concepts through a proof-of-concept prototype stage of a DOE prize challenge.

The Industrial Energy Storage Systems Prize – Phase 2: Advance is a cash prize administered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Industrial Technologies Office (ITO) through the HeroX crowdsourcing platform. It is Phase 2 of a three-phase, $4.8 million prize challenge designed to find cost-effective energy storage concepts for U.S. industrial facilities that can increase energy efficiency across industrial sectors.

Phase 2 awards $200,000 in cash to each winning team. Per-phase prize pools are not broken out separately from the $4.8 million total challenge budget. Winners in Phase 2 are eligible to compete in Phase 3: Validate. No cost-share, equity, or matching requirement applies — this is a prize, not a grant or cooperative agreement.

Phase 2 is open to individuals, for-profit companies, nonprofits, non-federal government entities (states, counties, tribes, municipalities), and academic institutions. Only teams that won Phase 1 are eligible to enter Phase 2. The prize covers three technology categories: (1) industrial cooling energy storage, (2) high-temperature (above 300°C) industrial energy storage, and (3) industrial thermal storage for hybrid cooling, heating, and power.

Participants submit through the HeroX platform at herox.com/industrial-energy-storage. To compete in Phase 2, teams must create a proof-of-concept prototype and collect bench-scale data that can be used to optimize a technoeconomic and/or life cycle analysis demonstrating that the concept would be applicable to industrial partners. No specific deadlines for Phase 2 are stated on the source page; the challenge is noted as closed to new competitors.

The challenge is currently closed — no new submissions are being accepted. Teams from other organizations cannot enter at this point. The page does not state a future reopening or successor call.