On January 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $31M in total funding for a combined Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support two topic areas:

• Topic Area 1: Projects to address downhole cement and casing evaluation tools for use in high-temperature and hostile geothermal wellbores
• Topic Area 2: Demonstration project for low-temperature (<130◦ C) reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES) technology with applications to industrial processes.

Projects under Topic Area 1 will reduce costs and technical challenges associated with wellbore construction for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), which will expand opportunities to tap firm, flexible, domestic geothermal energy nationwide and support DOE’s Enhanced Geothermal Shot™. Projects under Topic Area 2 can help reduce emissions from energy-intensive industrial heating processes, spur RTES technology towards being a long-term, reliable decarbonization technology for U.S. industry and manufacturing, and support DOE’s Industrial Heat Shot

The challenge is focused on accelerating energy storage project deployment in New York State by aligning capital resources and technical assistance to development stage energy storage projects. We’re specifically looking for innovative energy storage projects in New York State that are post site control and pre-financial close.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is being issued by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). The goals of this FOA are to advance manufacturing platform technologies in the following specific areas: Platforms for next generation battery manufacturing – focusing on manufacturability and scalability of critical battery components and system architectures as well as the role of machines for battery technologies (i.e., sodium-ion batteries (NIBs), flow batteries, and nanolayered films) Smart manufacturing platforms for battery production – developing innovative ways to revolutionize battery production by maximizing the benefits of smart manufacturing This FOA will support activities to advance platform technologies that enable flexible, scalable, and highly controllable battery manufacturing processes. Topics include: 1. Platforms for Next Generation Battery Manufacturing 1.1 Processes and Machines for Sodium-ion Batteries 1.2 Processes and Design for Manufacturability of Flow Batteries 1.3 Scalable Manufacturing of Nanolayered Films for Energy Storage 2. Smart Manufacturing Platforms for Battery Production.

Following a successful Round 1, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Electricity launched Round 2 of the $1.85 million Digitizing Utilities Prize, with support from DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response. This prize connects utilities with interdisciplinary teams of software developers and data experts to transform digital systems and data analytics for utilities in the energy sector.

The Digitizing Utilities Prize supports competitors as they develop innovative solutions to transform data analytics and system digitization for utilities, such as energy use data, synchrophasor data, weather data, fire assessment data, and more. In Round 2, innovators have the option to focus specifically on addressing cybersecurity threats and risks through demonstrated improvements in risk identification, analysis, prediction, or proactive response for enhanced protection of digital energy infrastructures.

The Solutions for Lasting, Viable Energy Infrastructure Technologies (SOLVE IT) Prize aims to empower communities to identify and implement innovative clean energy solutions in a way that works for their unique needs and challenges. The prize will award competitors with a demonstrated history of productive work with communities. Competitors will work collaboratively with stakeholders interested in community-scale (neighborhood-, town-, or city-scale) planning around clean energy to engage their communities, build a network of support for clean energy or decarbonization projects, and develop plans for carrying out these projects.

The DOE SC program in Basic Energy Sciences (BES) announces a re-competition of the Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) program and encourages both new and renewal applications. Applications from multi-disciplinary teams will be required to propose discovery science and use-inspired basic research that addresses priority research directions and opportunities identified by a series of BES workshop and roundtable reports.  BES is soliciting renewal applications for basic science in three topical areas: 1) Transformative manufacturing, 2) Quantum information science (QIS), and 3) Environmental management. BES is soliciting new applications for basic science in two topical areas: 1) Co-design of materials and processes to revolutionize microelectronics and/or QIS fabrication, and 2) Environmental management.

Phase 1 of the CPRG program provides flexible support to states, local governments, tribes, and territories regardless of where they are in their climate planning and implementation process. Planning grant recipients are using the funding to design climate action plans that incorporate a variety of measures to reduce GHG emissions from across their economies in six key sectors (electricity generation, industry, transportation, buildings, agriculture/natural and working lands, and waste management).

Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host the second US QIS Summer School facilitated by the US Department of Energy National Quantum Information Science Research Centers from July 15 to 26, 2024.

The summer school is an in-residence learning experience for outstanding graduate and undergraduate students and early-career scientists seeking hands-on experience with quantum science and technology in a laboratory setting. The curriculum will be taught at a graduate level.

Curriculum Topics:

• Topological approaches to quantum computing
• Cold atoms and ion traps
• Error mitigation and error correction
• The current state of the quantum information science field
• Applications of quantum technologies, quantum materials, and quantum sensing

The objective is research, development, and demonstration activities that will yield new communications and control technologies to enhance the security of electric distribution systems. Particularly with respect to the grid’s capability to prevent, detect, and respond to inadvertent and/or malicious disruptions to critical information flows. A demonstration of the developed solution under the evolving system architecture—including changes occurring on the grid edge—needs to be performed to validate electric utility acceptance. A successful demonstration will lend confidence that the innovation will perform as expected, will increase information security on the grid, and will not interfere with the function of the energy delivery control system. Research findings leading to valuable insights and best practices regarding the design, configuration, and use will be broadly shared with the utility community creating a pathway to accelerate deployment.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to invest in innovative research and development (R&D) that accelerates the large-scale development and deployment of solar technologies to support an equitable transition to a decarbonized electricity system by 2035 and decarbonized energy sector by 2050. This Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) FOA solicits seedling R&D projects for both photovoltaic and concentrating solar thermal power technologies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in collaboration with its Partnership Intermediary, ENERGYWERX, has re-opened applications for small and medium-sized manufacturing firms (SMMs) to receive grants of up to $300,000 per funding round, at 50% cost share, to implement recommendations made in IAC assessments and/or DOE Combined Heat and Power Technical Assistance Partnership (CHP TAP) assessments – including what are now called “Onsite Energy TAP” assessments – and, once qualified, other assessments submitted previously for qualification as “IAC-equivalent.”

In September, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Blueprint Cohorts Program (Blueprint Cohorts Program). The purpose of the Blueprint Cohorts Program is to provide EECBG grantees the support they need to execute their EECBG projects and programs. EECBG provides formula grants to over 2,700 local, state and tribal governments to support their clean energy goals. The DOE team has created 13 Blueprints that grantees may choose to follow with their EECBG Program grant available here. Many grantees are small local and tribal governments with limited staff capacity and limited experience with energy efficiency and clean energy. The Blueprints are designed to serve as model project ideas, making it easy for grantees to pursue impactful projects or programs with their EECBG grant funds, with expedited application review. ENERGYWERX is seeking applications from a single entity or a coalition of entities with experience working with local and tribal governments, administering virtual cohort-based trainings, and with subject matter expertise across the 13 Blueprint topic areas.