TSM Special Topic – USAF Air Force Office of Energy Assurance (AFOEA): Advanced Energy Storage for Installation Resilience

1.    BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Department of Air Force (DAF), Air Force Office of Energy Assurance (AFOEA), in support of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO), is seeking qualified vendors to submit solutions for Advanced Energy Storage Technologies capable of improving installation energy resilience and mission continuity. 

2.    PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

Despite the Department of Defense’s (DoD) modernization and mission assurance goals, current installation energy resilience approaches remain constrained by an overreliance on grid-supplied electricity and traditional diesel backup generation. Many DoW installations operate with limited integration of advanced onsite energy systems, and existing backup power strategies are often insufficient to support sustained operations during extended grid disruptions caused by extreme weather events, cyber threats, or adversary action.

To address these vulnerabilities, Congress has mandated that DoD achieve by 2030 at least 99.9% energy resilience year-round (no more than 8.76 hours of total annual downtime) for all critical missions at DoD installations. Meeting this requirement necessitates a transition away from sole dependence on diesel generators toward a diversified portfolio of onsite, resilient energy solutions capable of sustaining mission-essential loads during prolonged outages. 

Under this Special Topic, AFOEA is seeking advanced energy storage technologies—spanning electrochemical, mechanical, thermal, and hybrid systems that offer promising capabilities to support this shift. To accelerate deployment of these capabilities, AFOEA is seeking demonstration-ready, non-lithium advanced energy storage technologies from commercial-ready providers to prototype solutions for DoD installation use cases. Selected solutions should enable flexible deployment with behind-the-meter and/or in-front-of-the-meter applications and leverage DoD installations or national labs as test beds, where needed. Under this effort, vendors are encouraged to propose third-party financed, cost-effective approaches that enhance mission resilience while delivering value through energy services to installations, grid operators, or other stakeholders.  
 
3.    THE OPPORTUNITY

Entities are invited to submit solutions against this opportunity that meet or exceed the desired capabilities described below. All submissions must be made to the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace, in conformance with the requirements, and processes identified within the official Tradewinds announcement available at SAM.gov. For the content requirements of the video submission, submitters shall follow the instructions in paragraph 4 below. Aside from the video content instructions identified in paragraph 4 below, submitting entities shall follow all requirements and processes within the Tradewinds Announcement v10.0, available on SAM.gov.

A.    Submissions against this opportunity will be collected between June 04, 2026, and July 3, 2026, 12:00PM EST. Reference the official Tradewinds Announcement for details on the solution submission process.

B.    When submitting solutions against this Topic, select ‘Special Topic Submission’ under the ‘Submission Type’ field, and Advanced Energy Storage Special Topic’ under the ‘Relevant Strategic Focus Area’ field.

C.    To identify that your video submission is being submitted against the USAF Air Force Office of Energy Assurance (AFOEA): Advanced Energy Storage for Installation Resilience Special Topic, the title of your video submission should start with “AFOEA AE:” and then continue with your specific title (e.g., AFOEA AE: Quix13 Software Solution).

D.    Solutions that are deemed to be compliant and received timely will be queued for an assessment beginning July 6, 2026, and concluded no later than 12:00PM EST on July 31, 2026.

E.    In accordance with the Tradewinds process, solutions will be assessed against the Tradewinds rubric (Appendix B of the Tradewinds Announcement (pages 23-24)) and assigned a rating of either ‘Awardable’ or ‘Non-awardable.’

F.    Participating entities will receive notification of their assessment rating on or immediately after the conclusion of the assessment period (targeted for July 31, 2026).

G.    Solutions assessed as awardable will be placed in the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace and made available for future procurement activities.

4.    DESIRED SOLUTION CAPABILITIES

For the content of the video submission against this opportunity, all submissions must adhere to the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace guidelines and submission instructions (TSM Announcement Section VII), and the below content instructions. As identified within the TSM Announcement, there are four required content elements that each video submission must address. Within each of the required content elements, for responses to this Special Topic, submitters shall include the following information:

A.    Defining the Problem (Address the following as part of TSM criteria 1):
The problem statement has already been defined (see paragraph 2 above). It is recommended that minimal time be spent on problem identification, however, the vendor must clearly demonstrate how their proposed solution directly addresses the identified problem within the video submission.
B.    Accelerating the Mission (Address the following as part of TSM criteria 2):
AFOEA is looking for non-lithium advanced energy storage technologies to prototype for DoD installation use cases. The AFOEA desires near-term solutions (demonstration-ready within 12 months) that enable flexible deployment applications (behind-the-meter and/or in-front-of-the-meter) and leverage DoD installations or national labs as test beds, where needed. Detail how the presented solution addresses these desires as part of this TSM criteria.

C.    Advancing the State of the Art (Address the following as part of TSM criteria 3):
Typically, customers purchase lithium-based energy storage solutions to provide electric grid services for durations up to four hours. Due to lithium’s safety concerns and the need for long durations of energy resilience, AFOEA is interested in advanced, non-lithium energy resilience solutions for its mission critical loads. Additionally, to maintain our focus on our national security mission, instead of operations and maintenance, AFOEA is interested in procuring energy services, rather than becoming the owner of an energy storage asset. Third-party financed solutions that leverage revenue streams from multiple offtakers and retail and wholesale energy markets are more likely to get broader adoption within the DoD. Detail how the presented solution addresses this desire as part of this TSM criteria.

D.    Business Model (Address the following as part of TSM criteria 4):
DoD can procure energy and energy services under a variety of legal authorities, which can include long-term power purchase agreements, demand response programs for reducing peak loads, and real estate leases for building onsite energy resilience solutions. As part of this TSM criteria, provide details on your preferred business model.

5.    AWARDS

A.    All costs of preparing and submitting solution videos and submission forms are the responsibility of the submitting entity and not eligible for funding or reimbursement by the government.

B.    Assessment as “awardable” and placement into the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace does not guarantee any current or future award.

C.    The sponsor for this Special Topic (AFOEA) has identified that future awards resulting from this opportunity, if any, may be made through prototype other transaction agreements under the authority of 10 USC 4022 and/or contract. If any prototyping effort that results from this special topic becomes technically and economically feasible, the prototype project may be considered further for additional follow-on activities. It is not anticipated that DAF would not execute a long-term contract under the prototype program. Rather, it is anticipated that DAF may execute a follow-on agreement leveraging the TSM competitive procedures. 

D.    Resources related to the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace process can be found at: https://www.tradewindai.com/tw-marketplace