The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law authorized DOE to provide $75 million in incentive payments for Section 243: Hydroelectric Efficiency Improvement Incentives Program. Owners or operators of existing hydroelectric facilities, including pumped storage hydropower, may apply for funding to make capital improvements that can improve their efficiency by at least 3%. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law states that payments shall not exceed 30% of the costs of the applicable capital improvement. A single qualified hydroelectric facility, including pumped storage hydropower, may only receive one incentive payment from this program within a single fiscal year, and that payment shall not exceed $5 million.

The hydroelectric production incentive payments are a benefit available for electric energy generation and sold for a specified 10-year period as authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, DOE received $125 million to support this hydroelectric production incentive. At this time, DOE is accepting applications from owners and authorized operators of qualified hydroelectric facilities for hydroelectricity generated and sold in calendar years 2021 and 2022.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Competitive Program will award $8.8 million to local governments, state-recognized tribes, or teams of these communities. EECBG Program recipients can use the funding for a wide variety of projects that lower energy costs, reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, and reduce overall energy use.

The program provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses for renewable energy systems or to make energy efficiency improvements. Agricultural producers may also apply for new energy efficient equipment and new system loans for agricultural production and processing. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) has been provided over $2 billion for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvement grants for agricultural producers and rural small business owners through 2031. Rural Development is accepting applications for six quarterly competitions with the following deadlines:

• June 30, 2023
• September 30, 2023
• December 31, 2023
• March 31, 2024
• June 30, 2024
• September 30, 2024

The Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mine Land will demonstrate the technical and economic viability of deploying clean energy on current (operating) and former (abandoned or inactive) mine land. Up to five clean energy projects will be carried out in geographically diverse regions, at least two of which must be solar projects. These demonstration projects are expected to be replicable, providing knowledge and experience that catalyze the next generation of clean energy on mine land projects.

The E-Team Program, part of the VentureWell Accelerator, supports student ventures as you embark down the path you’re likely to take as an innovator and entrepreneur. We help you advance your invention through a powerful mix of up to $25,000 in grant funding, entrepreneurship training, mentorship by dedicated staff, national recognition, and networking with peers and industry experts.

Do you have an idea that can change the world? Every year, we award over $800,000 in non-dilutive E-Team grants to early-stage innovator teams that develop scalable innovations which aim to solve a large social, health, or environmental challenge.

This program will support all U.S. states, including Washington, D.C. and U.S. territories, in accelerating the deployment of smart manufacturing technologies by SMMs by providing financial assistance to SMMs to implement smart manufacturing technologies and practices and broaden access to high-performance computing resources. With this funding, states and territories will be able to create new programming or build on existing programs that provide technical assistance to SMMs. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals for funding that cover initiatives such as, but not limited to:

• Promoting the benefits of smart manufacturing technologies among SMMs based on national and regional economic development and supply chain priorities;
• Identifying and providing financial assistance to facilitate SMMs’ access to and implementation of smart manufacturing and high-performance computing resources and technologies; and
• Securing partnerships with labor unions and other stakeholders to expand and diversify the smart manufacturing talent pool and develop, promote, and scale adoption of smart manufacturing training.

The DPE Water Power Technologies Office is launching the Innovating Distributed Embedded Energy Prize (InDEEP) to encourage innovation in distributed embedded energy converter technology  to generate new, precommercial materials for wave energy conversion. This prize will challenge innovators from within and beyond wave energy to design and develop novel materials for marine energy applications that will lay the foundation for generating electricity at the grid scale.

This three-phase, two-year competition is offering a combined cash prize pool up to $2.3 million. Teams will also receive technical support, teaming support, and other forms of mentorship throughout the prize to enable their success.

Apply to Phase I by August 23.

The DOE Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) is leading a $156 million funding opportunity that will advance high impact applied research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the U.S. industrial sector.

The FOA includes the following topics: Decarbonizing Industrial Heat; Low-Carbon Fuels Utilization RD&D; Exploratory Cross-Sector R&D; Enabling Flexible Industrial Energy Use; Decarbonizing Chemicals; Decarbonizing Iron and Steel; Decarbonizing Food and Beverage Products; Decarbonizing Cement and Concrete; and Decarbonizing Forest Products.

EERE envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements. The estimated period of performance for each award will be approximately three years.

The FOA provides funding for research, development, and demonstration to:

• Improve the efficiency, increase the durability, and reduce the cost of producing clean hydrogen using electrolyzers to less than $2 per kilogram by 2026
• Advance new manufacturing technologies and techniques for clean hydrogen production and use equipment, specifically for electrolyzer and fuel cell technologies
• Create innovative and practical approaches to increase the reuse and recycling of clean hydrogen and fuel cell technologies

The following topics, in two areas of interest, are included in this funding opportunity.

Area of Interest 1: Clean Hydrogen Electrolysis Program

1. Low Cost, High-Throughput Electrolyzer Manufacturing
2. Electrolyzer Component and Supply Chain Development
3. Advanced Electrolyzer Technology and Component Development

Area of Interest 2: Clean Hydrogen Manufacturing and Recycling

1. Fuel Cell Membrane Electrode Assembly and Stack Manufacturing and Automation
2. Fuel Cell Supply Chain Development
3. Recovery and Recycling Consortium

The 2023 Conversion Research and Development (R&D) funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will accelerate the growth of the bioeconomy by supporting the development of high-impact technologies that convert domestic biomass and waste resources into affordable biofuels and bioproducts through two topic areas:

Topic 1: Overcoming Barriers to Syngas Conversion
Topic 2: Strategic Opportunities for Decarbonization of the Chemicals Industry Through Biocatalysts

The National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to increase the scale and pace of advancing discoveries made while conducting academic research into tangible solutions that benefit the public. This is the primary aim of the “Accelerating Research Translation” (ART) program. Specifically, the primary goals of this program are to build capacity and infrastructure for translational research at U.S. Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) and to enhance their role in regional innovation ecosystems. In addition, this program seeks to effectively train graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in translational research, benefiting them across a range of career options.