The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced up to $43 million in funding to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies that enable power generators to be responsive to grid conditions in a high variable renewable energy (VRE) penetration environment.
 
The FLExible Carbon Capture and Storage (FLECCS) program seeks to develop technologies that address difficulties in decarbonization of electricity systems, focusing specifically on complications in CCS design, operations, and commercialization potential with the increasing penetration of high VRE sources such as wind and solar power.
 
"Flexible CCS technology has the potential to achieve unprecedented carbon capture that will revolutionize the market," said Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette. "The FLECCS program will quickly advance our carbon capture technology to bring us closer to flexible, low-cost, net-zero carbon electricity systems."
 
FLECCS projects will develop retrofits to existing power generators as well as novel systems with carbon-containing fuel input and electricity output.
 
The program will have two phases. Phase 1 will focus on designing and optimizing CCS processes that enable flexibility on a high-VRE grid. Phase 2 will focus on building components, unit operations, and small prototype systems to reduce the technical risks and costs associated with CCS systems. Projects will be selected to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 at the conclusion of the initial funding period, based on the output and capacity expansion analysis of the projects.
 
A portion of the funding will be made specifically available for qualifying small business applicants under ARPA-E's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.