This FOA seeks applications to address the recycling of EV batteries to support
the establishment of a robust domestic critical materials supply chain. The
activities funded under this FOA include projects that reduce the costs
associated with the transport, disassembly, and preprocessing of EOL EV
batteries for battery recycling and that demonstrate the recycling of plastic EV
battery accessory components. These Topic Areas will support the development
of a domestic critical materials supply chain by ensuring that EV battery recycling
is a financially viable endeavor.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), on behalf of the Office of Electricity (OE), Grid Controls and Communications Division, Sensor and Data Analytics (SDA) Program, is seeking applications under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to enhance grid reliability and resilience with demonstrations of sensors and advanced analytics to develop the grid of the future. Demonstrations and direct partnerships with data providers and power sector utilities is strongly encouraged since they ensure that the analytics can meaningfully support planning and operations decision.

We are currently recruiting for our Fifth cohort. We select between 7-12 women entrepreneurs of color to participate in a new cohort each year. Representative sectors include tech, food, beauty, and retail. We encourage all applications!

Our entrepreneurs are:

• Adult women of color
• Businesses launched
• Based in the Greater Boston area
• Generating early revenue, typically more than $30k

LabStart is actively recruiting a diverse cohort of individuals – passionate about climate solutions, for a paid, year-long fellowship. During the program, fellows will work to build a startup around technologies licensed from national labs and universities. LabStart provides funding, structured programming and mentorship with a peer cohort, access to industry networks and funding pipelines, and guidance navigating the patent licensing process. You commit to working full-time on launching your company and we commit to making that possible! Selected entrepreneurs will convene with an in-person kickoff March 12-14, 2024. We anticipate 3-5 in-person events throughout the year and 6-8 virtual hours per week of LabStart curriculum, mentorship, team building, and coaching.

The 2024 challenge: To be part of a competitively selected cohort of start-up and/or seed stage ventures who offer innovative products or services aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to help Vermont meet its climate goals. Start-ups addressing the decarbonization of buildings, transportation, heating and industrial processes through electrification, biofuels, thermal energy networks or other renewables with a particular focus on load management controls integrated with storage, heat pumps, electric vehicle charging equipment and building systems are encouraged to apply. Ventures that address energy burden for under-represented and low to moderate income populations are of particular interest.

This FOA aims to reach across both the midstream and downstream segments of the battery supply chain, supporting both midstream battery materials and component manufacturing, as well as subsequent cell manufacturing and end of life recycling. It is anticipated that the FOA would increase domestic battery manufacturing and create good-paying clean energy jobs. The overall FOA scope includes commercial facilities for battery-grade precursor materials, constituent materials, battery components, and cell manufacturing and recycling.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) issued a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for up to $10 million of its base funding to fund Critical Materials Accelerator R&D projects. Projects funded under this FOA will prototype and mature technologies or processes to address critical material challenges in high impact areas. The Critical Materials Accelerator will be one of several pathways developed through the Critical Materials Collaborative (CMC) to de-risk innovation and mature technology development in partnership with industry. This FOA solicits proposals that continue advancing science and technology innovation and de-risking technologies that build and transform domestic critical material supply chains examined through the CMA.

This three-phase prize will award a total of $4.5 million in cash prizes and $1.1 million in national laboratory analysis consultation and technical assistance to teams that develop innovative ways to extend the lifetimes of products or parts via re-using, repairing, refurbishing, remanufacturing, or repurposing (“Re-X”) before recycling.  

The innovations developed through this prize will reduce life cycle energy and emissions, strengthen circular supply chains for emerging clean energy technologies, and decrease the demand for virgin materials. Innovations that enable new or expanded Re-X supply chains can also engage communities and labor, advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), and support the implementation of the White House Justice40 initiative. 

This lab call represents the combined effort of fourteen different U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program offices and the Office of Technology Transitions (OTT). This solicitation offers an opportunity for private industry to partner with DOE’s National Labs to advance energy-related National Lab-developed technology toward commercialization and to reduce the barriers to commercializing lab-developed energy-related technologies and IP. The intent is to increase the volume and speed to which energy-related lab-developed technologies make it to market from an improved lab commercialization ecosystem.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) released a $9.5 million funding opportunity to increase hydropower’s flexibility, allowing it to better balance the variability of resources such as wind and solar on the power system. The opportunity will fund projects in three topic areas:

1. Up to $4 million for projects that demonstrate hydropower hybrid configurations, such as a hydropower facility paired with another type of generation or with an energy storage resource.
2. Up to $4 million for projects that advance technology innovations to improve the flexible capabilities of the U.S. hydropower fleet.
3. Up to $1.5 million for projects that quantify the flexible capabilities of hydropower and advance operational strategies to increase such flexibility to better serve an evolving electric grid.

The Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) announced a $38 million funding opportunity focused on cross-sector technologies for industrial decarbonization. Through this funding opportunity, IEDO seeks high-impact, applied research, development, and pilot demonstration (RD&D) projects that will help drive the transformational cross-sector technologies and innovations required to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the industrial sector. The projects selected for this funding opportunity will advance a clean and equitable energy economy, bolster the technological and economic competitiveness of domestic manufacturing, and boost the viability and competitiveness of U.S. industrial technology exports.

Topic Areas

• Topic 1 – Electrification of Industrial Heat
• Topic 2 – Efficient Energy Use in Industrial Systems
• Topic 3 – Decarbonizing Organic Wastewater and Wet Waste Treatment

Are you a Climate Tech innovator looking to commercialize your hardware product? Apply to the 2023-2024 Scale For ClimateTech (S4C) program. Through the S4C program, supported by NYSERDA, and administered by SecondMuse and NextCorps, innovators receive dedicated support throughout their manufacturing process in order to gain confidence in their path to market and scale up production to meet demand. Innovators receive dedicated support throughout their manufacturing process in order to gain confidence in their path to market and scale up production to meet demand