The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $43 million in funding for projects that will advance research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) in several areas critical to the future of advanced batteries. The funding will drive innovations in low-cost electric vehicle (EV) battery electrode, cell, or pack manufacturing; improve battery safety and reduce cascading failures; and strengthen the domestic supply chain of inexpensive and abundant battery materials. This funding is aligned with strategies detailed in the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, which is a landmark interagency framework of strategies and actions to remove all emissions from the transportation sector by 2050, by advancing battery technologies that can power safe and efficient zero-emission EVs.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) announced the Offshore Wind National and Regional Research and Development Funding Opportunity, which will award $48.6 million for projects that address several major areas of need for offshore wind. The areas include accelerating research and development of floating offshore wind platforms; exploring innovations for fixed-bottom foundations; improving offshore wildlife protection through new monitoring technologies; expanding the reach of the domestic supply chain; advancing U.S. academic leadership in floating offshore wind; and investigating solutions to protect future infrastructure from lightning.

Technology commercialization is notoriously challenging in the building sector. Building tech investments often require long horizons that our planet does not have time for. Additionally, many new projects and businesses fall victim to ‘Valleys of Death’ during their early development stages. IMPEL equips early-stage innovators with technical and communication tools, so they can translate the premise and promise of new building technologies into the language of business. 

Uniquely embedded at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Building Technologies Division, and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office, IMPEL connects its Innovators to public and private sector pipelines, and a diverse network of investors, demonstration and technical experts, industry leaders, and policymakers to help our innovators reach their next milestone.

Despite advances in energy storage technologies, and ever-increasing numbers of deployments, several technological optimization opportunities still exist including initial pilots and demonstrations, hardware cost reductions, enhanced system performance, and demonstration of effective integration with the power grid. Improving and optimizing these areas will accelerate growth of long duration electrical energy storage deployments. As New York State’s electrification of transportation and buildings applications increases, long duration electrical energy storage solutions will become critical in meeting times of reduced renewable generation.

NYSERDA seeks to stimulate and grow long duration energy storage solutions in electrical, mechanical, chemical, and thermal-electric energy storage innovation portfolios in New York State by making up to $5.35 million in funds available. This funding is to support innovative and under-utilized long duration energy storage solutions, devices, software, controls, and other complementary technologies that decrease energy storage total hardware and installation costs, improve performance, and demonstrate integration with the power grid. Submissions must demonstrate significant statewide public benefits and quantify all energy, environmental, and/or economic impacts.

The New York State Clean Mobility Program will help communities launch/expand innovative zero-emission transportation options that can help reduce reliance on personal vehicles. The Clean Mobility Program will fund projects that will help overcome persistent transportation challenges, especially in underserved communities, and improve access to affordable zero-emission transportation options. Under this PON, Planning and Demonstration Tracks will offer technical assistance and implementation funding to local governments, transit operators, community-based organizations/non-profits, and local employers or groups of employers with a total of at least 1,000 employees in New York State (collectively referred to as “Eligible Entities”).

The NYSERDA Clean Hydrogen Innovation program focuses on accelerating innovative solutions in clean hydrogen to decarbonize hard-to-electrify sectors and to support the transition to a resilient, zero-emission electric grid. Through this program, NYSERDA has up to $11.5 million in co-funding for clean hydrogen research, development, and demonstration projects. Funding in this solicitation focuses on Clean Hydrogen Innovation in the following technical challenge areas:

1. Challenge 1. Hydrogen applications to decarbonize industrial process heat
2. Challenge 2. Mitigation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from hydrogen combustion
3. Challenge 3. Hydrogen storage technologies for bulk storage and limited footprint areas
4. Challenge 4. Hydrogen-based generation systems for microgrids and grid support services
5. Challenge 5. Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.

NYSERDA is issuing Round 2 of funding for two Challenge Areas:

1. Innovations in Green Cooling: Research, development, and demonstration of tools, technologies and strategies that increase adoption, performance, and benefits of nature-based approaches to passive cooling, resilience, and reliability in extreme heat.
2. Carbon Negative Buildings: Demonstration, introduction and scale up of carbon negative products in New York State that support building energy efficiency.

Powered by New Energy Nexus (NEX), we are thrilled to announce the launch the second round application for our 2024 NEX Climate Fintech Accelerator. Our mission is to propel fintech innovations that are crucial for climate finance. We provide an ecosystem of support, including business development, capacity building, and expansive networking opportunities.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) is issuing this $4.8 million funding opportunity announcement (FOA) “Water Power Innovation Network” to support business creation, entrepreneurship, and regional innovation for water power systems and solutions. WPTO enables research, development, and testing of emerging technologies to advance marine energy as well as next-generation hydropower and pumped storage systems for a flexible, reliable grid. Through this FOA, WPTO seeks to fund new and/or expanded incubator or accelerator programs that enable entrepreneurship and accelerate water power innovation, business creation, and growth in communities and regions throughout the United States. Through this FOA, new and/or expanded incubators and accelerators in water power will be able to collaborate with one another and build a stronger water power innovation network in support of accelerating water power technologies to market.

Are you a community interested in demonstrating or deploying a long duration energy storage (LDES) technology? This voucher opportunity seeks to provide communities who wish to benefit from the decarbonization, resilience, affordability, and workforce benefits of energy storage and are interested in innovative, first-time long-duration energy storage (LDES) deployments. These communities will receive services such as siting/permitting support, storage project road mapping, regional modeling, energy use analysis, technical feasibility studies, technology solution decision-making, or community engagement. While there are no restrictions on eligible communities, supporting disadvantaged communities (DACs) is an important goal of this opportunity. Providers may include national labs, consulting firms, or nonprofits.

Vouchers will be distributed as in-kind support, meaning that ENERGYWERX will directly reimburse the voucher provider for the work they have completed on behalf of the voucher recipients. The value of each voucher will depend on the services defined in the Providers’ capability statements, with estimated values of support services per recipient ranging from $50k to $150k.