Current technology for electrical energy storage (EES) imposes profound limits on needed advances in energy capture, its efficient utilization, and its impact on the environment. Renewable sources with time-varying output (e.g. solar, wind) require storage mechanisms, while electric vehicles with environmental as well as energy benefits need better storage mechanisms to enable longer distances and faster recharge than expected commercially in the short term. Our EFRC is aimed at providing the scientific underpinnings for a new generation of nanostructure solutions to enable EES devices with dramatic improvements in power (10-100X) and energy density (10X). We believe such advances are possible by suitable design of heterogeneous nanostructures that provide facile, repeatable and bidirectional transport of ions and electrons between high capacity nanostructures (e.g. nanowires) and remote contacts to the external world, while stabilizing efficient charge storage components during charge cycling. Multifunctional nanostructures will be investigated which combine efficient charge storage materials (metal oxides, Si) with low-dimensional carbon for accelerated charge transport to storage nanostructures and mechanical robustness during cycling, with focus synthesis in precise, well-controlled configurations as needed in massive arrays. Fundamental electrochemistry at the nanoscale will be explored experimentally and theoretically, enhanced by the development of new MEMS instruments for nanoscale in-situ observations of electrochemical phenomena and structural change during charge cycling. The EFRC is led by the University of Maryland in partnership with Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, the University of California Irvine, the University of Florida, and Yale University. The effort benefits from research facilities and infrastructure of the Maryland NanoCenter, University of Maryland Energy Research Center, and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies at Sandia and Los Alamos.