Dairyland Power Cooperative has received a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant award to strengthen grid resilience by bringing long-duration energy storage opportunities to rural communities. Dairyland was one of five cooperatives included in the National Renewables Cooperative Organization (NRCO) grant application for part of $325 million in federal funding from the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED).

Dairyland applied for the $5.7 million grant to support the communities served by its rural member cooperatives. Dairyland’s battery project site will be located in Allamakee County, Iowa, and will serve Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative member load. The Invinity Energy Systems vanadium flow battery (VFB) is capable of discharging 700 kW to 3.6 MW of electricity for up to 20 hours.

Energy storage is key to supporting reliability and deployment of intermittent renewable energy. “Dairyland is excited to be at the forefront of viable and reliable energy storage projects in underserved rural areas,” said Dairyland Vice President, Strategic Growth John Carr. “Long term batteries, with their ability to store energy for release at times of high energy, will be an essential component of the clean energy transition from both reliability and renewable energy expansion perspectives.”

The long-duration storage capability also applies benefits of short-duration energy storage to expanded scenarios, like fulfilling power needs during extended outages, which will allow utility crews time to adequately address issues while minimizing impact to energy consumers.

About the grant: Intended to accelerate the commercialization of long-duration energy storage technology that demonstrates significant cost reduction potential, high materials availability and performance advantages over current energy storage technologies. This project will also serve as a source of data for the DOE’s Rapid Operational Validation Initiative (ROVI) for Flow Batteries program.