The U.S. is import-reliant for 31 of 35 critical minerals and has no domestic production for 14 of those minerals. Rising demand for minerals will place major stress on global supply chains and undermine America’s ability to deploy more clean energy. By doubling down on technology innovation and permitting reform, the U.S. can take major strides toward more secure and reliable clean energy supply chains.

A Massachusetts-based company called Form Energy recently unveiled the details of its much anticipated, multi-day energy storage system, a technology that’s been known for decades but never truly commercialized: iron-air batteries.

Bipartisan support for energy storage innovation is strong and growing. On July 14, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the launch of “Long Duration Storage Shot,” part of DOE’s new “Energy Earthshots Initiative” to accelerate breakthrough energy technologies.

American innovation is driving down the cost of emerging storage technologies, including advanced batteries, thermal storage, and hydrogen. But the largest source of energy storage is also the most overlooked: pumped storage hydropower – though with recent policy and project developments, pumped storage may finally start to get the credit it deserves.

A strong U.S. industrial sector is essential to ensuring new technologies invented in the U.S. can be manufactured domestically, rather than in China, which would result in more jobs and fewer carbon dioxide emissions.

Now that DOE has finalized the Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap, the tough job of doing the work begins. The Roadmap provides clear goals for DOE to pursue in the coming years, providing new opportunities for entrepreneurs to demonstrate and scale their innovative technologies.