The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) today announced $15 million is available for the Carbon Neutral Community Economic Development program (CNCED) as part of Round XI of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council initiative announced last week. The funding will accelerate the design, planning, and construction of regionally significant, community-scale carbon neutral economic development projects for buildings, campuses and communities, and large portfolio owners. The program supports Governor Cuomo’s nation-leading climate and clean energy agenda including an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The third round of the Carbon Neutral Community Economic Development program includes two categories in which funding is available:

Category A:

• Facility-level carbon neutral building performance, which includes commercial, light-industrial, mixed use and municipal buildings, new construction, gut rehab and change-of-use projects (no size limit) with up to $2 million available for each awarded project. Eligible costs include: design, energy modeling, energy efficiency, controls, renewables, heat pumps, electric vehicle charging, storage, and commissioning.

Category B:

• Campus, community and large portfolio owner projects, which includes the planning, technical analysis, and design of carbon neutral performance for the community. Projects must be at least 1 million square feet or cost at least $50 million to implement. Projects in this category could include colleges and universities, downtown revitalization initiatives, neighborhoods, and office parks with up to $5 million available for each awarded project.

Funding awards will be prioritized for projects that are easily replicable and located in disadvantaged communities. A total of 21 projects have been awarded over $23 million in incentives since the Carbon Neutral Community Economic Development program was launched in 2018. For more information or to apply for this program please visit https://regionalcouncils.ny.gov/.

Saint-Gobain, MassCEC, and Greentown Labs recognize the significant role that healthy buildings will play in improving the sustainability of our built environment. The Healthy Buildings Challenge seeks startups with innovative technologies at the prototype stage and beyond that advance building sustainability and wellbeing for building occupants. Our world needs innovation that can optimize for the health of people and the health of the climate, together.

• A structured platform to explore potential partnerships with Saint-Gobain
• Support from Saint-Gobain leaders who will be matched with your team
• $25,000 in non-dilutive grant funding
• Mentorship, networking opportunities, and partnership-focused programming
• Exclusive access to the Greentown Labs, Saint-Gobain, and MassCEC networks
• Desk space and membership within Greentown Labs for the duration of the program

The Clean Energy Accelerator is open for mature startups looking to drive technical and commercial milestones by leveraging cutting-edge technologies from Amazon Web Services (AWS) in support of developing clean energy solutions.

The Clean Energy Accelerator is a virtual five-week, technical, business, and mentorship accelerator delivered by Freshwater Advisors. You will work with leading AWS technical experts to build and scale your cloud platform. The program delivers over 75 hours of support, and participants will be able to access the AWS Partner Network (APN) to build connections and potentially gain pilots and partnerships. During the program, the companies will benefit from both the technical and commercial expertise at AWS, along with connections to participating corporations to help optimize and deploy clean energy solutions that align with their mission and objectives.

The program will also bring in industry leaders to collaborate with you on topics ranging from climate change, international regulatory law, capitalization strategies for strategic partnerships, managing mergers and acquisitions, working with the public sector, and more.

Shell UK has announced a new program for energy start-ups – Shell StartUp Engine UK – in partnership with Unreasonable Group (Unreasonable). The program focuses on scale and growth-stage start-ups that are best placed to accelerate a fair and just energy transition, improve access to energy and help consumers make smarter energy choices. CEOs of these start-ups will benefit from high-profile mentorship, access to potential investors and partners, and being part of the Shell and Unreasonable start-up communities.

If you have an idea that has the potential to have a significant positive impact across one or several of the SDGs while being financially successful, apply here to build your company with Satgana. Satgana’s goal is to co-create companies from scratch, alongside extraordinary entrepreneurs. It offers financial, operational, and organizational support for ventures.

The Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI’s) Incubatenergy Labs—a program that connects leading startup companies with electric power utilities from around the world—invites startup companies to apply for the opportunity to propose innovative solutions to the most challenging issues facing the electric power industry. Selected applicants will be invited to participate in the 2021 Incubatenergy Labs Demo Day Challenge.

Startups must apply online to pitch their proposal to a group of electric power utilities in March 2021. Startups that deliver successful pitches at this event will go on to work with EPRI and electric power utility experts to scope and execute a paid pilot research and demonstration project within the service area of a participating utility next summer. This collaborative approach increases the value of the projects for all participants by expanding the reach of the startups and providing valuable investment information for the utilities. Applications can be submitted until January 14, 2021.

The L.A. New Mobility Challenge is a major global startup competition focused on innovative, zero-emission solutions for the challenges of urban mobility. The fourth edition of the Challenge invites startups and early-stage companies from around the world to address two critical issues in the urban mobility landscape: Solutions for Transporting Goods in Urban Environments, and Solutions for Transporting People in Urban Environments.

Interested companies should apply by October 30, and semi-finalists will be invited to pitch their concepts to our esteemed judges at CoMotion LA LIVE: November 17-19.

To be eligible, companies must be less than five years old, have revenue of less than $5 million, and have a product in pilot, beta or prototype stage.

The Grand Prize Winner receives:

• A trip to present at SparkLabs Korea DemoDay16 in 2021, the largest accelerator demo day in the world. Over 2,500 people attend these half-day events twice a year. (Includes 1 economy fare ticket and a 3-night five-star hotel stay.)
• Three month mentoring from 2-3 of SparkLabs Partners or Venture Partners.
• The right to join Urban Movement Labs as a partner, alongside mobility luminaries like Lyft, Waymo, Verizon, and Avis Budget Group.
• Access to UML’s team of experts, resources, and data.
• The opportunity to network with other partner companies and organizations.
• The right to an accelerated incubator, including previewing applicable technology to UML stakeholders for potential deployment in an LA Urban Proving Ground.
• Promotion to the greater UML community.
• Intros to key stakeholders at the UK’s Department for Transport’s Future of Transportation Strategy Team or other team, as relevant.
• Intro to the Connected Places Catapult, Zenzic and UK testbeds.
• Connection to relevant universities such as Warwick and Cranfield.
• Support from London & Partners, including access to Transport for London.
• Socially-distanced in-person gathering to celebrate winners (potentially at British Consul General’s Residence or British Consulate).
• Recognition by UK senior leadership.
• Conversations with and case studies from similar companies that have set up in the UK.
• Intro to Satellite Applications Catapult, Innovate UK, or CCAV, as relevant.
• Possibility to connect with opportunities and offers in other regions of the UK including Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
• Promotion of winning company in CoMotion NEWS.
• Exposure to the LACI team and opportunity to apply for its world-class startup incubation programs.
• LACI to make introductions to three curated investors.

Each year, this accelerator finds 15-20 companies that best fit their mission and fund each company up to $1 million to improve systems that impact people’s lives: energy, water, food & agriculture, mobility, and the circular economy.

Note: exclusively seeking applicants from federal agencies

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP)’s mission is to help federal agencies advance the energy efficiency, resilience, and security of their operations. FEMP assists Federal agencies in meeting energy-related goals by bringing expertise from all levels of project and policy implementation to identify affordable solutions and facilitate public-private partnerships.

AFFECT 2020 FAC will build on FEMP’s prior AFFECT grant program efforts to provide direct funding to Federal agencies for the development of energy and water efficiency projects and processes. The purpose of the funding is to initiate, supplement, improve or otherwise increase the viability and adoption of energy efficiency and operational resilience at U.S. Federal government-owned facilities. In addition, AFFECT will address the issue of aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance and repairs.

Applications are sought from Federal agencies for technical solutions that are in alignment with DOE EERE priority areas of interest: Resilient/Efficient/Secure (these areas of interest are not mutually exclusive and may overlap).

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) seeks opportunities to co-create, co-design, and co-invest in the research, development, piloting, and scaling of innovative and cost-effective interventions to support the advancement of self-reliant energy sectors in developing countries.

USAID invites organizations, companies, government agencies, academic and research institutions, and investors to propose innovative approaches to address the diverse set of challenges faced by countries that are striving to achieve universal access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy services. USAID developed this BAA for Energy Sector Self-Reliance to expand the Agency’s ability to engage with a wide range of implementing partners and service providers within the global energy sector, and develop new means to rapidly deliver tailored, best-in-class assistance and technologies to help strengthen national and regional energy systems.

Nexus and IN2 are granting two $15,000 grants for clean energy startups that can demonstrate positive impacts on underserved communities. New Energy Eligibility Criteria for $15,000 Clean Economy Grants:

a) Location: must be a California-based clean energy organization
b) Number of employees: must have at least two W2 employees
c) Must demonstrate impact on underserved communities
d) Must demonstrate financial need and urgency

An enduring challenge to ARPA-E’s mission is that even technologies that achieve substantial technical advancement under ARPA-E support are at risk of being stranded in their development path once ARPA-E funding ends (averaging $2.5M over three years).

The SCALEUP FOA builds upon ARPA-E-funded technologies by scaling the most promising. Stranding promising ARPA-E-funded technologies in their development pathways leaves substantial intellectual property developed with American taxpayer dollars vulnerable to adoption by foreign competitors, who can and do capture it for continued development – and economic benefit – overseas. This harms national competitiveness, as U.S. industries often lose the lead on the development, scaling, and manufacturing of technologies necessary to compete in rapidly evolving global energy markets. These scaling energy technology projects will meet ARPA-E’s statutory direction to achieve the above goals by “ accelerating transformational technological advances in areas that industry by itself is not likely to undertake because of technical and financial uncertainty”.^[2]