The Storage Design Strategies to Ease Production (STEP) Prize is a $500,000 two-phase competition explicitly designed to identify and foster innovative solutions for novel energy storage technologies. This prize targets a broad spectrum of innovators, including individuals, academic institutions, nonfederal government entities, small businesses, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and other inventors working on nascent or emerging energy storage innovations.
The Storage Design STEP Prize directly addresses historical challenges experienced by energy technologies during rapid scaling and market penetration, particularly those stemming from insufficient early-stage focus on manufacturability and supply chain resilience. By guiding competitors to integrate these critical considerations earlier in their design process, the prize aims to equip developers with the tools to mitigate future market deployment and adoption challenges, thereby accelerating the commercialization of robust, resilient, and economically viable next-generation energy storage solutions for the grid.
Background
The rapid expansion of the energy storage sector is critical for grid modernization and energy security. However, historically, the scaling and market integration of novel energy technologies have encountered significant roadblocks due to insufficient attention to manufacturability and supply chain resilience during early design phases. This persistent challenge often leads to inflated production costs, delayed market entry, and unsustainable dependencies. Recognizing this critical gap, the Storage Design STEP Prize is specifically structured to incentivize and guide innovators in integrating Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and robust supply chain strategies from the earliest stages of development, thereby de-risking nascent energy storage technologies and accelerating their path to commercially viable, resilient, and scalable deployment essential for national energy goals.
Prize Phases and Awards
The Storage Design STEP Prize employs a two-phase structure to incentivize innovators to integrate robust manufacturability and supply chain strategies directly into the design of novel energy storage technologies.
The first phase of the prize encourages competitors to identify and conceptualize solutions for known or anticipated production challenges specific to their innovative energy storage designs. Historical experiences from more mature energy storage technologies, where a lack of early consideration for manufacturing and supply chain logistics has often led to significant market deployment hurdles are useful examples. By focusing on these challenges at the design stage, the prize aims to prevent similar issues for next-generation storage solutions.
The winning design concepts from the initial phase will be eligible for the second phase. This phase will recognize competitors who have further developed and validated their Phase 1 winning solutions, demonstrating their potential to overcome manufacturing and supply chain barriers. This structure supports the DOE’s broader objective of accelerating the commercialization of diverse energy storage technologies to enhance grid resilience and bolster domestic manufacturing capabilities.
Awards:- $500,000
Deadline:- 09-10-2026
