The Department of Energy (DOE) American-Made Challenge is seeking innovators, visionaries, and enthusiasts from across a variety of industries to propose innovative solutions that will encourage the development of new ideas to cut the costs, timelines, and risks associated with hydropower development.

The key challenges that the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) is seeking to address are listed below:

• Geotechnical Site Assessment: Activities performed to obtain information needed to design and construct a hydropower foundation system
• Foundation Design: Process of using information from the site assessment to perform analyses and develop a cost-effective foundation system that meets the project design criteria
• Foundation Construction: Activities performed by the contractor, from mobilization through project commissioning, to fully develop the foundation system.

Furthermore, the prize seeks solutions that are low head (less than 30 feet, new stream-reach development (NSD), and applicable to soil foundations. Please note that superstructures, including dams, are excluded from the prize scope.

The City of San Antonio is issuing this Request for Proposals (“RFP”) in pursuit of formal proposals from companies for the purchase of electric energy, electric capacity, and related benefits to support the FlexPOWER BundleSM. This is a critical step along the city’s Flexible PathSM, the strategic approach to implement new power generation solutions.

FlexPOWER Bundle will replace a portion of the existing aging power generation capacity. The FlexPOWER Bundle has been broadly designed to add up to:

900 MW of solar resources,
50 MW of energy storage; and
Up to 500 MW of All-source firming capacity.

The deadline to submit questions is January 21, 2021, and the deadline to submit a proposal is February 1, 2021. The New Supplier Registration form is available here.

Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, in partnership with the Chicago Department of Assets, Information and Services (AIS), today announced a new Request for Proposals (RFP) to procure a renewable energy supply contract for City-owned buildings.

The contract will provide all City-owned buildings, streetlights, and other facilities with reliable, renewable electricity supply for at least five years beginning in 2022. The current cost of powering just City-owned buildings with energy is around $40 million annually, resulting in an estimated renewable electricity supply contract of $200 million for the vendor.

This FOA is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Building Technologies Office (BTO). This section describes the overall goals of BTO and the type of projects that are being solicited for funding support through this FOA.

BTO’s overall goal is to improve the energy productivity of buildings without sacrificing occupant comfort or product performance. Progress towards achieving this goal will make building energy costs more affordable to the benefit of American families and businesses.

The objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to research and develop next‐generation building technologies that have the potential for significant energy savings and improved demand flexibility, affordability, and occupant comfort. An additional goal is to advance building construction, remodeling, and retrofit practices, and associated workforces.

The American-Made Challenges’ Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Prize recognizes the nation’s most innovative incubators. Sponsored by the Office of Technology Transitions at the U.S. Department of Energy, EPIC will award prizes to competitors that submit the most creative and impactful plans to develop strong clusters, connections, and support for startups and entrepreneurs whose businesses focus on energy-related technologies. Up to 20 teams will be awarded $50,000 each.

This funding opportunity is part of the American-Made Challenges series, which unites the world’s best-in-class research base with the unparalleled entrepreneurial support system of the American-Made Network. Consisting of pioneering maker spaces, dozens of energy incubators, universities, and 17 DOE National Laboratories, the Network is primed to create a sweeping portfolio of innovations to demonstrate the promise of additive manufacturing.

The Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) seeks innovators to design water desalination systems powered by marine renewable energy. The Waves to Water prize, aligned with the Water Security Grand Challenge, is a 5-Stage competition that offers up to $3.3 million in cash prizes, with a goal to demonstrate small, modular, cost-competitive desalination systems that use the power of ocean waves to provide clean drinking water for disaster recovery and for remote and coastal communities.

This funding opportunity is part of the American-Made Challenges series, which unites the world’s best-in-class research base with the unparalleled entrepreneurial support system of the American-Made Network. Consisting of pioneering maker spaces, dozens of energy incubators, universities, and 17 DOE National Laboratories, the Network is primed to create a sweeping portfolio of innovations to demonstrate the promise of additive manufacturing.

The American-Made Solar Prize encourages the rapid development of innovative solar energy solutions capable of addressing the tough challenges facing the solar industry. Solar Prize competitors participate in three contests—the Ready! Set! and Go! Contests to transform their ideas into concepts and then early-stage prototypes ready for industry testing. Competitors have the chance to win $3 million in cash prizes and other resources to help them advance in the competition and accelerate the development of their solution.

This funding opportunity is part of the American-Made Challenges series, which unites the world’s best-in-class research base with the unparalleled entrepreneurial support system of the American-Made Network. Consisting of pioneering maker spaces, dozens of energy incubators, universities, and 17 DOE National Laboratories, the Network is primed to create a sweeping portfolio of innovations to demonstrate the promise of additive manufacturing.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) has announced the Innovations in Advanced Manufacturing for Hydropower (I AM Hydro) Prize to dramatically lower costs of hydropower components and systems designs by leveraging advancements in manufacturing and material.

I AM Hydro is inspiring disruptors and innovators to compete for up to $250,000 in cash prizes and help support the hydropower industry using the ingenuity of advanced manufacturing.

This funding opportunity is part of the American-Made Challenges series, which unites the world’s best-in-class research base with the unparalleled entrepreneurial support system of the American-Made Network. Consisting of pioneering maker spaces, dozens of energy incubators, universities, and 17 DOE National Laboratories, the Network is primed to create a sweeping portfolio of innovations to demonstrate the promise of additive manufacturing.

Note: exclusively seeking applicants from state, local and tribal government entities.

This funding opportunity will invest up to $10 million to allow state, local, and tribal government entities to compete for funding designed to meet DOE goals via field validation of high impact commercial building technologies.

The objective of this funding is to generate and disseminate data on the field performance of novel approaches to integrate advanced building technologies, that can inform commercial and multi-family building efficiency, demand flexibility, and building-to-grid programs. Projects funded through this FOA will have the potential to significantly reduce energy use in U.S. commercial buildings, develop new value streams for commercial building owners, and provide the end use flexibility required to dynamically balance the distribution grid.

Note: exclusively seeking applicants from federal agencies

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP)’s mission is to help federal agencies advance the energy efficiency, resilience, and security of their operations. FEMP assists Federal agencies in meeting energy-related goals by bringing expertise from all levels of project and policy implementation to identify affordable solutions and facilitate public-private partnerships.

AFFECT 2020 FAC will build on FEMP’s prior AFFECT grant program efforts to provide direct funding to Federal agencies for the development of energy and water efficiency projects and processes. The purpose of the funding is to initiate, supplement, improve or otherwise increase the viability and adoption of energy efficiency and operational resilience at U.S. Federal government-owned facilities. In addition, AFFECT will address the issue of aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance and repairs.

Applications are sought from Federal agencies for technical solutions that are in alignment with DOE EERE priority areas of interest: Resilient/Efficient/Secure (these areas of interest are not mutually exclusive and may overlap).

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) seeks opportunities to co-create, co-design, and co-invest in the research, development, piloting, and scaling of innovative and cost-effective interventions to support the advancement of self-reliant energy sectors in developing countries.

USAID invites organizations, companies, government agencies, academic and research institutions, and investors to propose innovative approaches to address the diverse set of challenges faced by countries that are striving to achieve universal access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy services. USAID developed this BAA for Energy Sector Self-Reliance to expand the Agency’s ability to engage with a wide range of implementing partners and service providers within the global energy sector, and develop new means to rapidly deliver tailored, best-in-class assistance and technologies to help strengthen national and regional energy systems.

This FOA supports STEM Workforce Development programs or projects that align with the Federal STEM Strategy and the DoD STEM Mission. This announcement encourages programs or projects that improve the capacity of education systems and communities to create impactful STEM educational experiences for students and teachers, and prepare the 21st century STEM workforce. AFRL’s Workforce Development programs or projects include, but are not limited to:

• Internships (High School through Doctoral)
• Fellowship Apprentice/Residency Programs
• College or University project-based learning programs
• Formal or informal workforce development programs or projects that align with the Federal STEM Strategy and DOD STEM Mission