Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technology Office (WPTO) are seeking industry partners to participate in short-term, collaborative projects to accelerate the development of innovative hydropower technologies leveraging the use of Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (AMM). The Hydropower Technical Collaboration Program (Hydro-TCP) provides selected participants with access to the U.S. DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL, including its world-leading experts in AMM research and cutting-edge equipment and capabilities to demonstrate the application of AMM to hydropower. The program will allow companies to explore innovative and daring ideas with minimal investment and limited risk. The goal is to foster novel approaches to enhance the performance and sustainability of hydropower technologies and redefine the future of the industry.

The Exchange Network (EN) was launched in 2002 as an intergovernmental, collaborative partnership of EPA, states, territories, and Tribes to foster better environmental management and decision-making through increased access to timely, high quality environmental information. This was achieved through a standards-based approach to facilitate environmental data sharing among EPA, states, Tribes, and territories. The framework adopted allows organizations to exchange data over the Internet regardless of the specific information technology used.

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.

Under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the DOE Office of Indian Energy is soliciting applications from Indian Tribes, which include Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Village Corporations, Intertribal Organizations, and Tribal Energy Development Organizations to:

(1) Conduct clean energy planning (Topic Area 1);

(2) Comprehensively assess the feasibility and viability of deploying clean energy technology (Topic Area 2); or,

(3) Conduct clean energy design and development activities (Topic Area 3).

DOE expects to make approximately $25 million of federal funding available for new awards under this FOA. The actual level of funding, if any, depends on Congressional appropriations. DOE anticipates making approximately 20 to 40 awards under this FOA. DOE may issue awards in one, multiple, or none of the Topic Areas.

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.

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.

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.

Participants in the Community Microgrid Assistance Partnership (C-MAP) will receive technical support and/or funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) to design or deploy a microgrid that aligns with community-defined priorities or to improve performance of an existing microgrid technology. Microgrids that generate power from renewable energy reduce the dependency on imported fuels, contributing to community self-sufficiency and resilience.

The Energy Innovator Fellowship (EIF) program funds recent graduates and energy professionals to support critical energy organizations in advancing solutions that will help modernize the power system, improve energy infrastructure for transportation and industry, and make the U.S. power system more reliable, affordable, and resilient. The program recruits candidates from varied educational and professional backgrounds to spend up to two years at eligible Host Institutions. Applications for prospective host institutions are currently open.

The Joint Assessment of Resilience in Vulnerable Infrastructure Systems (JARVIS) Opportunity will provide funding to utilities to deploy advanced technologies and incorporate modeling to identify and mitigate grid vulnerabilities, enabling greater integration across diverse energy portfolios. Eligible applicants are utilities and partner technical assistance providers (which includes companies/entities, research institutions, consulting firms, technology companies, for-profit and non-profit organizations). JARVIS will provide awards of approximately $1M each and is making $35 million currently available.

This contracting action is the second step in a two-step solicitation process to administer the State of New York’s $24 million award from the DOE’s Grid Deployment Office. New York was one of nine states and five tribal nations that were awarded a combined total of $125 million last November as the seventh cohort of Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid Grant.

NYSERDA is using the award as Step 2 in the solicitation process to provide funding for implementation projects to eligible applicants. Municipal utility (MUNI), rural electric cooperative (COOP) or any small grid operator within the State of New York that sells less than 4,000,000 MWh electricity annually will be eligible to apply for funding to support the implementation of eligible projects.   Eligible entities are allowed to apply for PON 5896 without having applied for or received funds from Technical Assistance Technical Assistance Funding to Develop Grid Modernization Projects (PON 5737). Previous application and/or award of technical assistance funding from PON 5737 does not guarantee award for federal implementation funds and vice- versa.

The Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) Ready program provides a vital mechanism for the support of innovative energy R&D that complements ARPA-E’s primary focus on early-stage transformational energy technologies that require proof of concept.