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 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.

Through this funding opportunity announcement (FOA), the DOE is soliciting applications from Indian Tribes, which include Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Village Corporations, Intertribal Organizations, and Tribal Energy Development Organizations to:

• Install clean energy generating systems and/or energy efficiency measures for tribal buildings
• Deploy community-scale clean energy generating systems or community energy storage on tribal lands
• Install integrated energy systems for autonomous operation (independent of the traditional centralized electric power grid) to power a single or multiple essential tribal buildings during emergency situations or for tribal community resilience
• Provide electric power to tribal buildings, which otherwise would be unelectrified

This funding opportunity will establish the Onsite Energy TAPs, which will help facilities across the nation integrate the latest onsite energy technologies by providing specialized technical assistance that can range from initial site screenings to identify onsite energy opportunities to more advanced analysis to support project installations. The TAPs will have expertise to advise on a wide variety on technologies, including battery storage, combined heat and power (CHP), district energy, fuel cells, geothermal, industrial heat pumps, renewable fuels, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal, thermal storage, and wind power.  Topic Areas:

1. Regional Onsite TAPs: Funding for up to 10 entities to serve as regional Onsite Energy TAPs. Each TAP will represent a multi-state region and serve as the primary technical, market, and policy point of contact for end-users and other state and local stakeholders.
2. Onsite Energy Technical Analysis and Support Center: Funding for one national entity to serve as the Onsite Energy Technical Analysis and Support Center (TASC). The TASC will centrally coordinate technical analysis and programmatic activities of the Onsite Energy TAPs.

1. Large Wind Blade Additive Manufacturing – This topic seeks projects that build on existing polymer-based AM research that supports and advances more cost-effective large wind turbine blades. Polymer-based AM generally allows for rapid prototyping, tooling, fabrication, and testing while enabling novel designs and process configurations.
2. Additive Manufacturing of Non-Blade Wind Turbine Components – This topic seeks innovative additive manufacturing solutions for lower-cost, higher-performance non-blade wind turbine system components. The focus is on non-blade components that can be improved via additive manufacturing processing and associated design and process innovation/integration.
3. Large Wind Blades – Advanced Manufacturing, Materials, and Sustainability – This topic is comprised of four areas of interest: Automation, Digitalization, Sustainability, and Modular Blade Construction/Joining. DOE is seeking projects that address remaining challenges to wind turbine manufacturing and that further previous work within these respective areas of interest.

EmPower Massachusetts offers multiple stages of investment in communities and community-based organizations so that they can explore, develop, and implement program models or projects that provide access to the benefits of clean energy for previously underserved populations. This MassCEC program crowd-sources new and innovative ideas, then helps put them into action. EmPower offers funding to meet the following goals:

• Build organizational capacity ($5,000 to $25,000 grants)
• Explore innovative solutions ($5,000 to $25,000 grants)
• Implement solutions ($50,000 to $150,000 grants)

MassCEC’s Equity Workforce Training Implementation Grants provide up to $1,200,000 across two to three years in grant funds and technical support to applicants developing or expanding programs that provide job training and support services to underserved individuals seeking employment in the clean energy sector. Successful applicants will propose projects that address barriers faced by these populations, demonstrate a high-level of employer engagement and leverage of existing workforce development systems, and lead to high-quality careers in climate-critical occupations.

Through this Request for Proposals (“RFP”), the Massachusetts Clean Energy Technology Center (“MassCEC”) is offering Community Engagement Planning Grants.  The Community Engagement Planning Grants will provide direct support to community-based organizations, municipalities, or other entities that represent the community interest (“Communities”) to support meaningful community input in the development and deployment of solar energy projects owned by electric and gas distribution companies (“EDCs”).

Since 2013, IncubateMass has provided funding to Massachusetts incubators with the goal of growing the clean energy innovation ecosystem and commercializing cleantech startups through incubator membership. This funding supports incubator activities such as

• build-out of facilities or infrastructure
• equipment purchases
• networking events and workshops
• growing strategic clusters
• professional development of incubator staff

Grants are up to $175,000 per year and award payments are typically tied to incubator management deliverables and startup member milestones.

The Catalyst Program provides grants of up to $75,000 to researchers and early-stage companies looking to demonstrate initial prototypes of their clean energy technologies. Specifically, the program is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of transforming new ideas from the research stage to commercially viable technologies to increase industry and investor interest. All awardees gain access to a vast network of partners, expert local market and policy insights, and mentoring from MassCEC and MassVentures, while all finalists receive complimentary pitch coaching and business mentoring.

In parallel with Catalyst, MassCEC and MassVentures will award up to two additional grants of up to $75,000 each for projects led by eligible (certified or certifiable) women-owned or minority-owned early-stage companies, to demonstrate initial prototypes of their clean energy technologies.

The “Reducing Agricultural Carbon Intensity and Protecting Algal Crops” funding opportunity will improve the production of environmentally sustainable feedstocks for bioenergy through two topic areas:

1. Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices for Low-Carbon Intensity Feedstocks, and
2. Algae Crop Protection

The funding will also support projects that cultivate and protect algae crops, an abundant and renewable biofuel source vulnerable to loss from predation, organic competition, and pest infestation.

GTO’s EGS program actively pursues research, development, and demonstration projects to facilitate technology validation and demonstration, reduce cost, and improve performance of EGS.  The technology developments targeted in this FOA are intended to increase geothermal power production in the United States in the near-term from areas surrounding existing geothermal fields (Topic Area 1) while facilitating new opportunities for widespread power (or power with cascaded heat production) in the future from regions where heat is present, yet no geothermal energy production exists (Topic Areas 2, 3, and 4).