The Beyond the Meter: Energy Storage Integration Prize, funded by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE), is focused on the grid edge, or where buildings, industry, transportation, renewable energies, storage, and the electric grid come together. Grid edge is a leading area of the electricity evolution, where electricity changes from being a one-way grid to a two-way grid with homeowners and business owners storing and transmitting energy from behind-the-meter. To have a smooth energy transition, the many new and emerging components of the grid must work together. This prize will highlight grid-edge technology solutions around ESS that enable different technologies to integrate and operate together, contributing to a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable energy ecosystem.

The goal of the Technical Assistance (TA) program is to assist transmission planners in incorporating energy equity as an objective in their planning. The TA will be targeted to transmission planners including Regional Transmission Operators (RTOs), Independent System Operators (ISOs), Power Market Administrators (PMAs), and utilities. The ITP TA will be delivered through a two-tiered approach—Tier I: Capacity Building and Tier II: Advanced Capacity Building. In Tier I, participants will learn how to better integrate energy equity in transmission planning through consultation, presentations, workshops and webinars, and other relevant resources. Tier II is designed to offer an advanced technical assistance program on energy equity in transmission planning through deep-dive analysis, modeling, and analytical support (e.g., framework development, proof of concept, etc.).

The NSF Trailblazer Engineering Impact Award (TRAILBLAZER) program supports individual investigators who propose novel research projects with the potential to innovatively and creatively address national needs and/or grand challenges, advance US leadership, and catalyze the convergence of engineering and science domains. TRAILBLAZER will support engineers and scientists who leverage their distinctive track record of innovation and creativity to pursue new research directions that are distinct from their previous or current research areas.

For more than a decade, the BNEF Pioneers program has identified a group of game-changing technologies or innovations annually – each with the potential to accelerate global decarbonization and halt climate change. Applicants are shortlisted by the BNEF Pioneers team, and finalists are judged by a panel of BNEF experts. Winners must prove they offer a novel, substantial, scalable and competitive solution. In 2025, the program will focus on three global climate challenges and will award the Pioneers prize to innovators with scalable, impactful and equitable solutions to these challenges.

NSF-supported science and engineering research increasingly relies on cutting-edge infrastructure. With its Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program and Major Multi-user Facilities (“Major Facilities”) projects, NSF supports infrastructure projects at the lower and higher range of infrastructure project costs, Foundation-wide, across science and engineering research disciplines. The Foundation-wide Mid-scale Research Infrastructure opportunity is intended to provide NSF with an agile, Foundation-wide process to fund experimental research capabilities in the mid-scale range between MRI and Major Multi-user Facilities.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) program and Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, through a Partnership Intermediary Agreement with ENERGYWERX, announced the Innovative Queue Management Solutions (iQMS) for Clean Energy Interconnection and Energization program. This program will award $11.2 million to no more than 25 distribution utilities to pilot innovative solutions for managing renewable energy and electric vehicle (EV) charging interconnection and energization queues. The iQMS program will fund pilot projects to demonstrate new interconnection queue management solutions on actual interconnection, service load request, and energization queues. These tests will help utilities and public utility commissions understand the real-world capabilities of new software and workflow automation solutions and accelerate their adoption to enable rapid deployment of more solar energy, wind energy, energy storage, EV charging infrastructure, and other clean energy assets to the grid. Participating utilities will document and share lessons learned and best practices from their pilot projects to help other utilities manage similar interconnection and energization requests.

The NSF SBIR/STTR and SBIR/STTR Fast-Track pilot programs support moving scientific excellence and technological innovation from the lab to the market. These NSF SBIR/STTR Fast-Track pilot programs provide fixed amount cooperative agreements for the development of a broad range of technologies based on discoveries in science and engineering with potential for societal and economic impacts. Under a traditional NSF SBIR/STTR Phase I award, a small business can receive non-dilutive funding for research and development (R&D) to demonstrate technical feasibility over 6 to 12 months and then, after completion of a Phase I project, companies may apply for Phase II funding to further develop the proposed technology.

The AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge is a global $100 million initiative from the Bezos Earth Fund. The Grand Challenge is exploring new ideas for multiplying the impact of climate and nature efforts using modern AI. The first round of awards will focus on sustainable proteins, power grid optimization, and biodiversity conservation, in addition to embracing visionary wildcard solutions for climate and nature. The Bezos Earth Fund will determine the final slate of Seed Grantees who will be invited to participate in Phase 2.

An open-innovation program for electric utilities, via which a cohort of mature power-sector startups co-develop business-cases for scalable technological innovations, with the aim of implementing pilot-projects as a precursor to larger deployment. Startups in the cohort will present business cases, showcasing the value that each startup’s solution can propose for the utility partner, STELCO. One startup will be selected at the end of the program for a fully funded pilot based on their business case.

The DOE Voucher Program builds bridges between U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses, technology developers or other relevant partners and third-party voucher providers to advance commercialization of innovative energy technologies. The first submission window solicits capability statements from potential voucher providers.  Voucher Opportunity (VO-10) addresses key adoption risk areas related to domestic supply chain availability and is meant to broaden the ecosystem of clean energy manufacturers through supporting activities including:

• Feasibility studies to convert existing production lines including, but not limited to, equipment and process reviews; staff qualifications and workforce needs assessments; and certification support.

The DOE Voucher Program builds bridges between U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses, technology developers or other relevant partners and third-party voucher providers to advance commercialization of innovative energy technologies. The first submission window solicits proposals from potential voucher providers. Voucher Opportunity (VO-3) enables expert assistance to help AHJs and related institutions understand new clean energy technology benefits and challenges, and support the demonstration of these technologies through activities including:

• Evaluating siting and permitting best practices developed by similar jurisdictions,
• Developing streamlined permitting processes,
• Educating first responders and related personnel on technology safety requirements and risks
• Evaluating locality infrastructure/logistical readiness to utilize the designated technologies,
• Supporting community engagement on related issues.

The DOE Voucher Program builds bridges between U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses, technology developers or other relevant partners and third-party voucher providers to advance commercialization of innovative energy technologies. The first submission window solicits proposals from potential voucher providers. Voucher Opportunity (VO-2) enables evaluation of technology performance and support for obtaining site and technology related certifications through supporting activities including:

• Access to advanced modeling and digitization resources,
• Testing to obtain industry-relevant certifications,
• System performance validation and testing under certification-relevant operating conditions,
• Digital twin development,
• Testing in real-world environments,
• and more.