California has awarded a $15.7 million grant to the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt to build a vanadium flow battery system co-located with solar photovoltaic generation and lithium-ion batteries, in support of the Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District. Typical battery storage, which mostly encompasses lithium-ion technology, has an industry standard of two to four hours of discharge, while long-duration energy storage can provide power for significantly longer periods. California’s storage gap and why it mattersThe state projects that more than 48,000 MW of battery storage and 4,000 MW of long-duration storage will be needed by 2045. A ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 18, 2026, in Kern County, California, marked the commissioning of the Tumbleweed Energy Storage facility, the first eight-hour battery energy storage system in California. The Cal Poly Humboldt project, once online in 2029, is intended to supply similar evidence for flow battery technology at grid scale.