Are you an entrepreneur looking to scale a transformative climate technology? Are you invested in scaling a solution that brings both climate and social impact? Elemental Excelerator is a leading nonprofit investor focused on scaling climate solutions and social impact for all communities. Elemental provides an initial investment, usually in the form of SAFEs or convertible notes, to help complete specific milestones tied to the program. The priority application deadline is April 14 and applications will be accepted through May 31, 2023.

The Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) is accepting proposals for the Energy I-Corps (EIC) program. The goal of EIC is to train National Laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) on the pursuit of energy-related technology commercialization. This call solicits proposals from national laboratory and FFRDC technology transfer offices to participate in EIC, for researchers to develop skills in commercialization, and to investigate the market potential for DOE-funded technologies at a critical juncture on the path toward commercialization.

OTT expects to award at least $500k across the three topics included in this lab call. However, additional funding may be available based on proposals alignment with OTT and partner office goals. The topics: EIC Pipeline Development, EIC Training Cohort, and Post EIC.

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) invites you to submit a proposal to the 2023 Summer of Action grants program. This is the seventh year EDF has awarded Summer of Action grants, intended to support organizations as they build their base of advocates to push for federal and local climate, clean energy, healthy communities, and environmental justice policies. For 2023, preference will be granted to proposals that creatively engage federal lawmakers and/or influential stakeholders to lift up local stories that spotlight and celebrate investment opportunities flowing from BIL and IRA implementation.

The Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) program will provide financial investment, technical assistance, and other resources to advance clean energy demonstrations and energy solutions in rural and remote areas that can be replicated and scaled. There are two topic areas: Community-Scale Demonstrations and Large-Scale Demonstrations.

The $15 million Energizing Rural Communities Prize challenges individuals and organizations to develop partnership plans or innovative financing strategies to help rural or remote communities improve their energy systems and advance clean energy demonstration projects. The Energizing Rural Communities Prize has two tracks, both following a two-phase timeline:

• The Partner track—with a $10 million cash prize pool—will support plans to connect rural or remote communities to government funding, technical assistance, or a network of partners that can help implement clean energy demonstration projects.
• The Finance track—with a $5 million cash prize pool—will support plans to access capital or to develop community ownership models to help finance clean energy demonstration projects in rural or remote areas.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partners with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP) to help remote and island communities transform their energy systems and increase energy resilience. ETIPP employs a community-driven approach to identify and plan resilient clean energy solutions that address a community’s specific challenges. This approach combines the experience and expertise of local community leaders, residents, and organizations with the ETIPP partner network. The ETIPP partner network connects selected communities with regional nonprofit or academic organizations (“regional partners”), energy experts at DOE research institutions (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NREL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories), and DOE clean energy technology offices to navigate options for addressing local energy resilience challenges.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) helps keep families safe and healthy through initiatives that assist families with energy costs. LIHEAP provides federally funded assistance to reduce the costs associated with home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization, and minor energy-related home repairs. LIHEAP can help you stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer through programs that reduce the risk of health and safety problems that arise from unsafe heating and cooling situations and practices.

Through this funding opportunity announcement (FOA), the DOE is soliciting applications from Indian Tribes, which include Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Village Corporations, Intertribal Organizations, and Tribal Energy Development Organizations to:

• Install clean energy generating systems and/or energy efficiency measures for tribal buildings
• Deploy community-scale clean energy generating systems or community energy storage on tribal lands
• Install integrated energy systems for autonomous operation (independent of the traditional centralized electric power grid) to power a single or multiple essential tribal buildings during emergency situations or for tribal community resilience
• Provide electric power to tribal buildings, which otherwise would be unelectrified

The Joint Office provides technical assistance on planning and implementation of a national network of electric vehicle chargers and zero-emission fueling infrastructure as well as zero-emission transit and school buses.

The Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) is a stakeholder partnership to enable a simpler, faster, and fairer interconnection process for clean energy resources while enhancing the reliability, resiliency, and security of our electric grid.  One of the key activities of i2X is to provide technical assistance that will directly support stakeholders in improving interconnection practices and processes for electricity distribution systems and the transmission system, also known as the bulk power system. The technical assistance must be specific to the interconnection of solar, wind, storage, or electric vehicle charging facilities, or a hybrid integration of these technologies. The i2X team has allocated up to $750,000 for this technical assistance opportunity and intends to select up to 12 projects.

Mass Fleet Advisor aims to bridge the technical expertise gap by pairing businesses and non-profits with a technical consultant who will work with you to analyze your fleet and come up with an electrification plan that is tailored to your business. Lead by CALSTART, Inc., the consultant team will provide FREE electrification planning to interested private, commercial, and non-profit fleet managers. Sixty-Five eligible fleets will receive one-on-one support and a Fleet Electrification Report including a site assessment, total cost of ownership analysis, vehicle market inventory analysis, charging analysis, and next step recommendations.

EmPower Massachusetts offers multiple stages of investment in communities and community-based organizations so that they can explore, develop, and implement program models or projects that provide access to the benefits of clean energy for previously underserved populations. This MassCEC program crowd-sources new and innovative ideas, then helps put them into action. EmPower offers funding to meet the following goals:

• Build organizational capacity ($5,000 to $25,000 grants)
• Explore innovative solutions ($5,000 to $25,000 grants)
• Implement solutions ($50,000 to $150,000 grants)