The Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) is accepting proposals for the Energy I-Corps (EIC) program. The goal of EIC is to train National Laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) on the pursuit of energy-related technology commercialization. This call solicits proposals from national laboratory and FFRDC technology transfer offices to participate in EIC, for researchers to develop skills in commercialization, and to investigate the market potential for DOE-funded technologies at a critical juncture on the path toward commercialization.

OTT expects to award at least $500k across the three topics included in this lab call. However, additional funding may be available based on proposals alignment with OTT and partner office goals. The topics: EIC Pipeline Development, EIC Training Cohort, and Post EIC.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Electricity launched the High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Prize to incentivize new technology solutions to improve the performance and resilience of the U.S. energy grid.

The HVDC Prize invites electrical and industrial engineers, computer scientists, and power electronics researchers to develop new power and energy system solutions to improve renewable distributed generation, transmission to population centers, and integration with the U.S. energy grid.

Up to four winning teams will receive $50,000 each for proposing new HVDC technology solutions to strengthen the U.S. energy grid. An informational webinar will be held April 6. Apply by June 7.

The Industrial Demonstrations Program will fund projects that focus on the highest emitting and hardest to abate industries where decarbonization technologies can have the greatest impact: iron and steel, cement and concrete, chemicals and refining, food and beverage, paper and forest products, aluminum, other energy-intensive manufacturing industries and cross-cutting technologies. Widespread demonstration and deployment of projects within these industries will support President Biden’s initiative to rebuild U.S. leadership in manufacturing as countries, companies, and consumers around the world shift to low- to no-carbon commodities to meet their own decarbonization goals.

Through this FOA, DOE makes available up to $820 million of federal funding at a maximum of 70% federal cost share for up to ten (10) carbon capture large-scale pilot projects designed to further the development of transformational technologies that capture carbon emissions from existing coal or natural gas electric generation facilities and existing industrial facilities not purposed for electric generation. These carbon capture large-scale pilot projects must be integrated with commercial plant operations and conducted in the United States. DOE may issue additional carbon capture large-scale pilot FOAs in the future. Using multiple FOAs can help enable the validation of transformational carbon capture technologies with different maturation timelines in a large-scale pilot project once they reach the appropriate technology readiness level.

This FOA makes available up to $1,700,000,000 for approximately 6 projects at up to a 50% federal cost share. Proposed projects must demonstrate as part of the application and during the award at least 90% CO₂ capture efficiency over baseline emissions and a path to achieve even greater CO₂ capture efficiencies for power and industrial operations. Note that if the carbon capture project includes a new, on-site auxiliary system to generate power or steam for its operation, it may need to include CO₂ capture, compression, and storage from the auxiliary system if needed to achieve the minimum unit-wide 90% CO₂ capture inclusive of the power industrial facility all new systems or processes associated with the CCS project.

NREL provides U.S. local governments with technical assistance to advance waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). The technical assistance addresses knowledge gaps, specific challenges, decision-making considerations, planning, and project implementation strategies related to WTE. The WTE resources considered include organic waste such as food waste, wastewater sludge, animal manure, and fats, oils, and greases.

The REMADE Institute is seeking technology proposals for research, development and demonstration (RD&D) projects that develop and demonstrate tools and technologies consistent with REMADE’s goals to reduce energy and emissions; achieve better than cost and energy parity; and promote the widespread application of new enabling technologies across multiple industries. RD&D projects must align with one or more of the Institute’s focus areas: systems analysis and integration; design for reuse, remanufacturing, recovery and recycling (design for Re-X); manufacturing materials optimization; remanufacturing; and/or recovery and recycling.

The Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) program will provide financial investment, technical assistance, and other resources to advance clean energy demonstrations and energy solutions in rural and remote areas that can be replicated and scaled. There are two topic areas: Community-Scale Demonstrations and Large-Scale Demonstrations.

The $15 million Energizing Rural Communities Prize challenges individuals and organizations to develop partnership plans or innovative financing strategies to help rural or remote communities improve their energy systems and advance clean energy demonstration projects. The Energizing Rural Communities Prize has two tracks, both following a two-phase timeline:

• The Partner track—with a $10 million cash prize pool—will support plans to connect rural or remote communities to government funding, technical assistance, or a network of partners that can help implement clean energy demonstration projects.
• The Finance track—with a $5 million cash prize pool—will support plans to access capital or to develop community ownership models to help finance clean energy demonstration projects in rural or remote areas.

Through the NEVI program, Alaska will receive more than $50 million from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) over five years to advance a statewide EV fast charging network. This program will adapt Alaska’s infrastructure system to support reliable, equitable and sustainable electric transportation while meeting community and economic needs. AEA is soliciting competitive applications for the purpose of installing electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) at up to 14 Sites throughout the State along Alaska’s Alternative Fuel Corridor (AFC). The scope of
this project will include design, construction, installation of software and hardware, operations, maintenance and reporting.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partners with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP) to help remote and island communities transform their energy systems and increase energy resilience. ETIPP employs a community-driven approach to identify and plan resilient clean energy solutions that address a community’s specific challenges. This approach combines the experience and expertise of local community leaders, residents, and organizations with the ETIPP partner network. The ETIPP partner network connects selected communities with regional nonprofit or academic organizations (“regional partners”), energy experts at DOE research institutions (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NREL, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories), and DOE clean energy technology offices to navigate options for addressing local energy resilience challenges.

The Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program is designed to provide grants to small- and medium-sized manufacturers to enable them to build new or retrofit existing manufacturing and industrial facilities to produce or recycle advanced energy products in communities where coal mines or coal power plants have closed. Grants are available until the total $750M is expended.