The Department of Energy started a new initiative designed to assist "underserved and frontline" communities in energy storage, federal officials said in a Nov. 3 release.
The $9-million project is called the Energy Storage for Social Equity Initiative (ES4SE) and will assist up to 15 communities with a focus to increase energy resilience and get the most of power through storage.
"This funding will help promote an equitable clean energy transition, advance more affordable and reliable energy, and support the Biden Administration's Justice40 goals," Energy officials said.
According to the Clean Energy States Alliance, ES4SE aims at empowering urban, rural and tribal disadvantaged communities. The idea is for communities to thrive through introducing energy storage technologies to its residents.
The Office of Electricity said that low-income households are battling high energy costs across the nation, saying that 65% of low-income families face an energy burden. More than 30% have had to go as far as eliminating food or medicine to pay their energy bills and not having their preferred heating or cooling level.
"The #Energy Storage for Social Equity Initiative will assist underserved communities in using #energystorage to increase energy resilience," the DOE Office of Electricity tweeted on Nov. 5.
Communities that were interested recently attended an informational webinar to be educated on how the initiative could help. The release said that communities involved would have access to the Department of Energy's experts for energy, economic, equity and spatial analysis. Experts will also be able to help in creating energy storage projects.
Applications for ES4SE are due at 5 p.m. Dec. 3.
