The Department of Energy announced the launch of an Energy Storage for Social Equity Initiative on Nov. 3 designed to benefit underserved and frontline communities.
The initiative, which has been abbreviated to ES4SE, will be funded with $9 million directly from the Department of Energy and will help serve toward the support of the Biden administration’s Justice40 goals, according to a press release from the DOE.
“@DOEelectricity's Energy Storage for Social Equity Initiative will empower urban, rural and tribal disadvantaged communities to consider energy storage as viable path toward community prosperity,” said the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in a tweet on Nov. 1.
In the press release, the DOE highlights the main goals of the initiative, which aims to help as many as 15 disadvantaged communities throughout the Pacific Northwest by providing energy storage to use and take advantage of as a means to increase their resiliency. Current numbers show that 30% of low-income households experience some form of energy insecurity, with ES4SE aiming to reduce this number.
In order to meet the goals set by the Biden administration, the Department of Energy claims that the new grant will be able to provide and promote a more equitable clean energy transition while still while maintaining affordability to combat high energy insecurities, according to the press release.
