The American-Made Power at Sea Prize seeks new, innovative, and feasible marine energy concepts that can fulfill Powering the Blue Economy initiatives—including supporting offshore industries, science, and security activities, and meeting the energy and water needs of coastal anThe American-Made Power at Sea Prize seeks new, innovative, and feasible marine energy concepts that can fulfill Powering the Blue Economy initiatives—including supporting offshore industries, science, and security activities, and meeting the energy and water needs of coastal and rural island communities. The two-phase, $1.7 million prize is open to new and existing participants in marine energy.d rural island communities. The two-phase, $1.7 million prize is open to new and existing participants in marine energy.

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 U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP) has up to $225 million to grant to Tribal governments and Alaska Native entities for Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates. This program will provide up to $14,000 per eligible household for energy efficiency and electrification home upgrades.

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

EPA’s new Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants program (Community Change Grants) has announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity for approximately $2 billion dollars in Inflation Reduction Act funds in environmental and climate justice activities to benefit disadvantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. These place-based investments will be focused on community-driven initiatives to be responsive to community and stakeholder input. They are designed to deliver on the transformative potential of the IRA for communities most adversely and disproportionately impacted by climate change, legacy pollution, and historical disinvestments.

The AID Demonstration program provides funding as an incentive for eligible entities to accelerate the implementation and adoption of innovation in highway transportation. AID Demonstration funds can be used in any phase of a highway transportation project between project planning and project delivery, including planning, finance, operation, structures, materials, pavements, environment, and construction.

The Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy (IGNIITE) program is designed to support a new cohort of early-career researchers to develop the most disruptive and unconventional ideas into transformative new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications. Areas of interest include grid, transportation, buildings and construction, electricity generation and storage, carbon capture, storage, and sequestration, industrial efficiency and decarbonization, amongst others. Additionally, awardees will engage with ARPA-E and fellow awardees through dedicated IGNIITE events, meetings, and mentorship activities.

The purpose of the Agriculture Risk Management Education Partnerships Competitive Grants Program is to educate agricultural producers about the full range of risk management activities. These activities include futures, options, agricultural trade options, crop insurance, cash forward contracting, debt reduction, production diversification, marketing plans and tactics, farm resources risk reduction, and other appropriate risk management strategies. The program places special emphasis on risk management strategies, education, and outreach specifically targeted at: (A) beginning farmers or ranchers; (B) legal immigrant farmers or ranchers that are attempting to become established producers in the United States; (C) socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers; (D) farmers or ranchers that (i) are preparing to retire; and (ii) are using transition strategies to help new farmers or ranchers get started; and (E) new or established farmers or ranchers that are converting production and marketing systems to pursue new markets. The Agriculture Risk Management Education (ARME) program brings the existing knowledge base to bear on risk management issues faced by agricultural producers and expands the program throughout the Nation on a regional and multi-regional basis.

Up to $40 million for Fiscal Years 2024, in Federal funding for eligible entities to deploy, operate, document, and showcase integrated, advanced roadway deployments featuring applications enabled by interoperable wireless connectivity (among vehicles, mobile devices, and smart infrastructure) that substantially and quantitatively improve system safety, enhance traveler mobility, improve efficiency of goods movement, mitigate environmental impacts, and address disparities in transportation equity.

DOE will invest approximately $3.9 billion across three programs covered by this FOA for the Fiscal Years (FY) 2024 through FY 2025 to deploy technologies to increase grid reliability and resilience. Together DOE refers to these programs as the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program. The GRIP Program focuses on these topic areas:

• Grid Resilience Grants – supports activities that reduce the likelihood and consequence of impacts to the electric grid due to extreme weather, wildfire, and natural disaster.
• Smart Grid Grants – supports projects that will achieve the goals and objectives set out in FOA Section I.A.ii through innovative and ambitious uses of cutting-edge, market-ready technologies.
• Grid Innovation Program – seeks applications that may include technical and/or non-technical (e.g., focused on regulatory or business model innovation) approaches that improve grid reliability and resilience on the local, regional, and interregional scales.

In November 2023, the Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technology Office (SETO) launched the Equitable Solar Communities of Practice program to support the expansion of equitable benefits in solar adoption. A community of practice, for the purposes of this program, is a group of organizations with expertise in equitable solar, to include one ‘lead organization’ and up to six ‘core team members’ that will convene regularly to accomplish the specific tasks and deliverables outlined in this opportunity. The Equitable Solar Communities of Practice program is now accepting applications for lead organizations to support five communities of practice across the following categories – equitable access and consumer protections, meaningful household savings, resilience, community-led economic development, and workforce development – aiming to convene stakeholders and experts to identify best practices and pathways to scale equitable solar solutions.