Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Keep Earth’s Energy Prepared and Stored Act” or the “KEEPS Act”.
Keep Earth’s Energy Prepared and Stored Act
A BILL
To authorize the National Science Foundation to award a monetary prize for achievement in electricity storage.
Sec. 2 Findings
The Congress finds the following:
Dramatic advances have been made in the manner and means of acquiring oil, natural gas, coal, and other forms of carbon-based energy fuel.
Dramatic advances have been made in the manner and means of producing new sources of energy.
Dramatic advances have been made in the manner and means of producing electricity from various forms of fuel.
No dramatic advances have been made in the manner and means of storing electricity, so electricity, when produced, must flow and be used promptly or lost.
If the technology and the ability to store electricity for even weeks or months were developed, the energy needs of our Nation could be met through completely clean and environmentally friendly means.
The value to the United States of being able to efficiently store electricity for 30 days or more is incalculable and would free the Nation from reliance on any foreign energy or environmentally destructive sources.
Though $500,000,000 is a sizable cash prize, if such a prize produced the technology and the ability to store electricity, it would save every American incalculable amounts of money.
Sec. 3 Prize authority
In General— The Director of the National Science Foundation (in this Act referred to as the “Director”) shall carry out a competition to award a cash prize to the first participant to develop the ability to store multi-megawatt electricity for 30 consecutive days with less than a 10 percent decrease in the electricity stored.
Administering the Competition— The Director shall—
widely advertise the prize competition; and
develop any additional criteria and definitions necessary to award the prize authorized under this Act, with the intention of this Act to be able to immediately, after the award of the prize, be capable of building facilities that will store electricity for wide scale grid usage.
Sec. 4 Eligibility
To be eligible to win the prize under this Act, an individual or entity—
in the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and in the case of an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, shall be a citizen of, or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in, the United States; and
shall not be a Federal entity, a Federal employee acting within the scope of his employment, or an employee of a national laboratory acting within the scope of his employment.
Sec. 5 Intellectual property
The Federal Government shall not, by virtue of offering or awarding the prize under this Act, be entitled to any intellectual property rights derived as a consequence of the participation by a participant in the prize competition authorized by this Act. This section shall not be construed to prevent the Federal Government from negotiating a license for the use of intellectual property developed for the prize competition under this Act.
Sec. 6 Authorization of appropriations
Sec. 7 Nonsubstitution
The prize competition authorized under this Act shall not be considered a substitute for Federal research and development programs.