The EPIC Buildings Accelerator is a six-month Clean Tech program, providing a suite of business incubation supports to early-mid stage companies targeting energy hardware innovations in grid-interactive and energy-efficient building technologies, that complement traditional accelerator services. Accepted companies receive a monthly 1:1 meeting, held virtually with the accelerator staff.

This program is offered by CenterState CEO’s NYSERDA Clean Tech Center, in collaboration with the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE), with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions and the Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC), as well as DOE’s Building Technology Office.​

The Innovation Hot Spot program provides five years of corporate, personal income, and sales tax incentives to qualifying tech or manufacturing companies. These eligible companies receive entrepreneurial services during their enrollment through The Tech Garden as the regional Innovation Hot Spot, or through our incubator partners, to help companies grow in Central New York.

This FOA will award up to $30 million for research, development, and demonstration projects in thermochemical storage via solar fuel production and local thermal energy storage (TES) for dispatchable energy.

Specifically, this FOA will implement two approaches to energy storage in concentrated solar-thermal (CST) systems: thermochemical storage via solar fuel production and local thermal energy storage (TES) for dispatchable energy. The two technologies will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection.

The Advancing U.S. Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaics FOA will focus on accelerating the capabilities of two thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technologies: metal-halide perovskite PV and cadmium telluride (CdTe) PV technologies. It will fund innovative industrial research and development (R&D) projects that will enable future commercialization of hybrid tandem perovskite PV, defined as a perovskite PV in combination with another technology such as silicon or CdTe. It will also fund industrial research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects across the materials, equipment, installation, and performance monitoring sectors to improve the competitiveness of the domestic CdTe PV industry.

The objective of this FOA is to solicit and competitively award university-based R&D
projects that address and resolve fundamental scientific challenges and applied
engineering technology issues associated with thermal management of combustors and hot gas path components for gas turbines. Specifically, R&D projects will conduct fundamental and applied research to develop advanced materials and advanced hot gas path components which utilize these advanced materials, advanced cooling architectures, and advanced manufacturing methods.
The FOA will seek to solicit and competitively award laboratory/bench-scale R&D in the following areas of interest (AOI):
AOI 1: Fundamental Materials Development for Hot Gas Path Hydrogen Turbine
Components
AOI 2: Applied Materials Development for Hot Gas Path Hydrogen Turbine Components
AOI 3: Fundamental Materials Development for Hydrogen Rotating Detonation Engines
(RDEs).

The objective of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to competitively solicit cost-shared research proposals for pilot-scale field deployment and validation of efficient, cost-effective solutions ready for pre-commercialization that can eliminate flaring and non-safety related venting of natural gas at the well site. Projects sought under this FOA include the use of innovative technologies for processing and separating oil and associated gas at the well site designed to eliminate flaring, as well as new technologies designed to convert the associated natural gas into value-added solid or liquid products. Proposals can also develop technologies that use both processing and conversion, provided the applicant demonstrates that the overall process is technically feasible, economically feasible and ready for pilot-scale field testing at the well site.

The overarching goal of this opportunity is to develop domestic supply chains for critical minerals and materials (CMM) by creating paths and strategies to commercialize processes that utilize domestic resources. These activities can include extraction, separation, processing, refining, alloying, or recycling technologies but should focus on decreasing environmental emissions, reducing resource usage or intensity, and/or optimizing cost.

The FOA includes five areas of interest (AOI), which are separated into phases as follows: 1: CMM Supply Chain 2: Value Added Products 3: Next Generation Technologies 4: Alternative Materials 5: Alternative Products.

This program selects and fully funds proof of concepts of new ideas leveraging advanced cloud computing and AI to solve some of the biggest challenges in the fight against climate change. Startups at any stage can apply, they just need to have a tech team capable of building with advanced computing services.

When a startup is selected for the fellowship, they will engage in a 2-3 month build with 1:1 advice from mentors and AWS credits to cover the AWS service costs of the build. Both IRCAI and AWS will provide selected startups with a team of mentors who are experts in AI, sustainability and ethics. Startups will get access to advanced computing services, such as quantum computing, high performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and AWS credits to cover the build of the PoC.

The Climate Change Investment Initiative (2c2i) is a 10-year, $20 million, joint commitment between Exelon Corporation and its philanthropic arm, Exelon Foundation, to invest in and cultivate innovative start-ups focused on advancing climate change mitigation, adaptation and resiliency efforts, while also promoting
social equality and economic prosperity, in Exelon’s service territories. These service territories include Chicago, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD; Washington D.C.; Atlantic City, NJ and Wilmington, DE.

The first round of funding makes up to $8 million available for projects that address the challenges of decarbonizing industrial process heat and advancing clean hydrogen production and renewable energy integration.

Through the first round, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is seeking applicants comprised of single entities or teams to compete for funding under two technical challenge areas including hydrogen applications to decarbonize industrial process heat and clean hydrogen production and integration with renewable energy. Proposals will be accepted in the following categories: A: Feasibility and Research Studies. B: Product Development. C: Pilot and Demonstration Projects. D: Federal Cost Share Projects

This program will provide up to $20 million over three years for research and development projects to create innovative and practical approaches to increase the reuse and recycling of solar energy technologies. The program is designed to address challenges associated with the rapid deployment of PV systems in the US. The focus of the program is to support technology improvements to reduce these challenges with a holistic view of all stages of the PV lifecycle—from the material needs and installation to operation and end of life (EOL).

This opportunity also supports DOE’s Photovoltaics End-of-Life Action Plan which aims to halve the cost of recycling by 2030 and reduce the environmental impact of solar energy modules at end-of-life. Topic Area 1is MORE Connection: Connecting PV Materials, Design, Installation, Performance, and End of Life – 3-6 projects, $2-4 million each. Topic Area 2 is Solar Partnership to Advance Recycling and Circularity (Solar PARC) – 1 project, $8 million.

Capital Connect will bring together some of the top companies and technologies around energy transition with venture capital investors from around the country through curated collisions at Venture Houston on September 7. This in-person event will provide opportunities for group pitch sessions, curated one-on-one meetings and open networking between startups and VCs.