This is a competitive grant solicitation. The California Energy Commission’s (CEC’s) Clean Transportation Program announces the availability of up to $4 million in grant funds for one or more third-party implementers to provide technical assistance (TA) for communities eligible to seek federal and state funding for zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure. TA providers will, at minimum, assist in identifying grant opportunities, support successful application development and submittal, and support project implementation that delivers benefits in under-resourced communities.

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.

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.

Startup Runway is a pitch competition and investor introduction platform for existing businesses led by women and founders of color headquartered in the United States. At this time, we do not take applications from outside of the United States. If your company is still ‘an idea’ please do not submit. Companies with an MVP and a few customers are the most competitive. We also do not take submissions from startups who have previously been chosen by a top ranked national accelerator such as 500 Startups, Gener8tor, YCombinator or Techstars. Startup Runway’s investor introduction platform works for business models that are scalable and looking for funding to grow. Criteria for selection include that your startup has raised less than $200K in investments. The next Showcase will occur on March 6 in Atlanta!

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.

A growing supply gap in heat pump and HVAC technicians is increasing the risk of a bottleneck in statewide building retrofit and decarbonization efforts that are critical to meeting the Commonwealth’s climate goals.

With the construction of the Vineyard Wind 1 project well underway and Massachusetts planning to procure thousands of additional megawatts of offshore wind energy, there is an increasingly urgent need to ensure that we have a qualified, well-trained, safe and equitable workforce to plan, build, operate, and maintain these projects.

The Catalyst Program provides grants of up to $75,000 to researchers and early-stage companies looking to demonstrate initial prototypes of their climate technologies. Catalyst is jointly administered by MassCEC and MassVentures with a goal of stimulating the commercialization of climate technologies developed in the Commonwealth. 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.