The SUPERHOT program will support the research and development of technologies that enable the production of geothermal energy from super-hot reservoirs (>375 °C and >22 MPa) for 15 years or more. This program seeks to fund the development of novel technologies for well construction, enhance testing facilities, and optimize reservoir heat extraction to make super-hot geothermal production a reality. The final application deadline is TBD. The program will have two categories:

• Category 1: Technologies related to the construction of robust super-hot wells and validation services for quality assurance of new well designs and materials. This focus will involve new materials, novel well solutions, and state-of-the-art testing facilities to assess these new approaches.

• Category 2: Technologies related to the extraction of heat from the reservoir to the well. The focus of this category is to develop fracture based and non-fracture-based methods for extracting heat from a super-hot reservoir (potentially composed of ductile rocks) to a working fluid in a well.

This Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) funding opportunity provides support for rural and remote communities to build clean energy projects that benefit their communities. Applicants must propose projects that support at least one of these eligible activities:

• Improving overall cost-effectiveness of energy generation, transmission, or distribution systems;
• Siting or upgrading transmission and distribution lines;
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy generation in rural or remote areas;
• Providing or modernizing electric generation facilities;
• Developing microgrids; and
• Increasing energy efficiency.

The objective of this NOFO is to facilitate innovative energy storage technology material, subcomponent, component, or system pre-production design to improve the manufacturability of one or more energy storage technologies. The R&D projects supported by this NOFO will improve the manufacturability of an energy storage technology and advance the TRL and MRL of the technology in the United States. Results may benefit a consortium of developers if the design challenges are widely shared within an industry. Manufacturability improvements can reduce technology production costs for the energy storage technology in question. Identifying and implementing design innovations will align pre-production storage system design to set the stage for manufacturing scale-up.

ConnectWerx, a Partnership Intermediary under a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Grid Deployment Office has opened an initial funding opportunity for collaboratives to develop new approaches and frameworks for system planning, cost recovery, and risk allocation for electricity demand growth.

Under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the DOE Office of Indian Energy is soliciting applications from Indian Tribes, which include Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Village Corporations, Intertribal Organizations, and Tribal Energy Development Organizations to:

(1) Conduct clean energy planning (Topic Area 1);

(2) Comprehensively assess the feasibility and viability of deploying clean energy technology (Topic Area 2); or,

(3) Conduct clean energy design and development activities (Topic Area 3).

DOE expects to make approximately $25 million of federal funding available for new awards under this FOA. The actual level of funding, if any, depends on Congressional appropriations. DOE anticipates making approximately 20 to 40 awards under this FOA. DOE may issue awards in one, multiple, or none of the Topic Areas.

OCED has announced a new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for pilot-scale projects that has a separate streamlined submission process from the DOE’s traditional SBIR/STTR program. The Pilot-scale Rapid Operational Validation of key Energy Infrastructure Technologies (PROVE IT) program supports the validation of existing pilot projects or subsystems in a relevant industrial environment to increase their technology readiness to the point of being able to be integrated in a large clean energy infrastructure project and increase their adoption readiness level to medium/high. Applicants can be awarded up to $4.3 million under two topic areas: point source carbon capture and long-duration energy storage.

The Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) requests proposals for its Energizing Insular Communities (EIC) Program which provides grant funding for sustainable energy strategies that reduce the cost of electricity to consumers and/or improve the performance of energy infrastructure and overall energy efficiency in the territories.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Build America Bureau (Bureau) today released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program, created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The NOFO offers $27 million in technical assistance grants to rural and tribal communities for the planning and design phase development of transportation projects. There is no local funding match required to participate in this program. The Bureau designated up to $10 million for Tribal applicants.

Delaware B-WET is a competitive grant program that helps deliver Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for students in the Delaware Bay watershed in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It encourages capacity building and partnership development for environmental education programs throughout the Delaware Bay watershed.

Delaware B-WET supports the development of programs that will reach all students in a given grade level across an entire school district in order to create systemic change. Successful projects advance the goals of the NOAA Education Strategic Plan. They provide hands-on environmental education about issues affecting the watershed for students as well as related professional development for teachers, administrators, and other educators who serve formal K-12 audiences. B-WET supports Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences, which are learner-centered experiences that focus on investigations into local environmental issues that lead to informed action and civic engagement. Learn more about past and current B-WET funded projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the Fiscal Year 2025 Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Program Wide funding program. This funding opportunity will award up to $88 million for projects that will seek innovative transportation solutions for on- and off-road vehicles.

DOE is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing domestic jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment, and ensuring affordable and low-emission energy is available to all communities in America. Topic areas under this funding opportunity will advance affordable and reliable energy innovation in mobility and improve U.S. competitiveness.

Following a successful Round 1 and Round 2 of this prize series, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Electricity is excited to announce the $2.5 million Digitizing Utilities Prize Round 3: Resilient Grid Innovation. Round 3 of this competition aims to incentivize technology development partnerships with interdisciplinary teams of utility and energy sector partners with software developers and data experts to facilitate the transformation of digital systems, data analytics, and grid resource integration for the electric sector.