EERE Funding Opportunity Announcements

The purpose of this modification is to extend the response deadline to January 18, 2019.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is requesting information on research opportunities related to outdoor algae research, biomass characteristics and feedstock performance, and renewable energy from urban and suburban wastes to help inform its research priorities and funding strategies. BETO seeks information to help inform its research priorities, as part of its annual planning process. The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders to help ensure research areas are relevant, timely, appropriate for federal government funding, and aligned with Administration priorities. This is solely a request for information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). No funding applications are being accepted in response to this RFI. Specifically, BETO is seeking information related to the following three topic areas: 1) Outdoor Algae Research; 2) Biomass Characteristics and Feedstock Performance; and 3) Renewable Energy from Urban and Suburban Wastes.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), invests in cutting-edge research, development, and demonstration activities focused on sustainable transportation, renewable power, and energy efficiency. Through EERE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) public-private R&D consortia, manufacturers, small businesses, universities, national laboratories, and state and local governments are brought together to pursue coordinated early-stage R&D in high-priority areas essential to energy in manufacturing. Federal funding is the catalyst to bring stakeholders into shared spaces and to address process and technological challenges that present a significant degree of scientific or technical uncertainty.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to establish an Energy Innovation Hub (referred to hereafter as the Energy-Water Desalination Hub, or the Hub) to address water security issues in the U.S. For the purpose of this FOA, “desalination” more broadly includes technologies that primarily remove salts. The Hub is a critical component of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) broader Water Security Grand Challenge which will use a coordinated suite of prizes, competitions, early stage research and development (R&D), and other programs to help address the nation’s water security needs.

The Energy-Water Desalination Hub will be organized around four topic areas: 1) Materials Research and Development, 2) New Process Research and Development, 3) Modeling and Simulation Tools, and 4) Integrated Data and Analysis. DOE intends to select and fund one application with the greatest likelihood of achieving the goals of all four topics of this FOA.

Please carefully review the complete Funding Opportunity Announcement, which can be accessed under the "DOCUMENTS" heading below.

Please click "FOA FAQs" under the "DOCUMENTS" heading below for Questions and Answers specific to this FOA.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: The Exchange system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applications. In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov ).

Informational Webinar: The Informational Webinar mentioned in the FOA will be held on January 7, 2019 at 3:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Attendance is not mandatory and will not positively or negatively impact the overall review of any Applicant submissions. Standard application questions regarding the EERE Office and FOA procedures will be discussed. No new information will be presented during the webinar and EERE will not answer any attendee questions during the webinar.

After the webinar is complete, a link will be provided to access the audio recording of the webinar. Also, a copy of the Webinar Slides and Webinar Transcript will be available to download in the “DOCUMENTS” section below.

Please click here to register for the webinar.

*UPDATE: Please see the link below for the Informational Webinar held on January 7, 2019 and enter this passworrd: ZyM3H8Yg

https://doe.webex.com/doe/lsr.php?RCID=cb6bea419f25703c5b37a6f66c993868

Please see the Announcement Documents section for a copy of the webinar slides.

Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement No. DE-FOA-0002032 Energy Infrastructure Deployment on Tribal Lands – 2019

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Indian Energy is charged by Congress under the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self Determination Act of 2005 (Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), Title V, § 502, codified at 42 USC § 7144e and 25 USC § 3501 et seq.), to “provide, direct, foster, coordinate, and implement energy planning, education, management, conservation, and delivery programs that –

(1) Promote Indian tribal energy development, efficiency, and use;

(2) Reduce and stabilize energy costs;

(3) Enhance and strengthen Indian tribal energy and economic infrastructure relating to natural resource development and electrification; and

(4) Bring electric power and service to Indian land and homes for tribal members located on Indian lands or acquired, constructed, or improved (in whole or in part) with Federal funds.” 42 USC § 7144e(b).

Through this planned Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), DOE’s Office of Indian Energy will be continuing its efforts to maximize the deployment of energy solutions for the benefit of American Indians and Alaska Natives and help build the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to implement those energy solutions.

Specifically, DOE’s Office of Indian Energy may solicit applications from Indian Tribes including Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Village Corporations (hereafter referred to as “Indian Tribe”) and Tribal Energy Resource Development Organizations to:

(1) Install energy efficiency measure(s) and/or energy generating system(s) for Tribal Buildings (Area of Interest 1);

(2) Deploy community-scale energy generating system(s) on Tribal lands (Area of Interest 2);

(3) Install energy system(s) for autonomous operation to power a single or multiple essential tribal loads for emergency situations or for tribal community resilience. (Area of Interest 3).

DOE envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of grants. The estimated period of performance for each award will be approximately from one (1) to two (2) years, but no longer than three (3) years including a 12 month mandatory verification period.

This Notice is issued so that interested parties are aware of DOE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this Notice is subject to change. DOE will not respond to questions concerning this Notice. However, once the FOA has been released, DOE will provide an avenue for potential Applicants to submit questions.

DOE’s Office of Indian Energy plans to issue the FOA on or about December 2018 or January 2019 via the EERE Exchange website (https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/). If Applicants wish to be notified when the FOA is issued, they should subscribe to the DOE Office of Indian Energy email list on the website homepage (https://energy.gov/indianenergy/office-indian-energy-policy-and-programs). When the FOA is released, applications will be accepted only through EERE Exchange. NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE.

This is a Notice of Intent (NOI) only. DOE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

The Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to gather insights about priority research and development needs across the solar industry. The goal of this RFI is to achieve a better understanding of the problems facing solar stakeholders including researchers, analysts, and manufacturers supporting the technological advancement and wide-scale adoption of solar technology. This information will help inform the office’s planning efforts.

The RFI covers four topic areas:

Photovoltaics: The office seeks feedback on issues related to high-priority areas within photovoltaics (PV) research, such as advanced PV manufacturing science, high efficiency tandem cell and module development, and reliability of module-level power electronics. Specifically, SETO is interested in and identifying any new major research areas and potential projects or collaborations that would have a lasting impact for the U.S. PV industry.

PV stakeholders are asked to send responses to SETO.RFI.PV@ee.doe.gov and can find a template for responses in the “DOCUMENTS” section below.

Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power: The office seeks input from the industrial and research communities in several areas that may help enable concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) systems to achieve high operating temperatures and lower costs. Those areas include: long-term thermal energy storage, pumped thermal storage materials, and autonomous solar collector fields.

CSP stakeholders are asked to send responses to SETO.RFI.CSP@ee.doe.gov and can find a template for responses in the “DOCUMENTS” section below.

Systems Integration: The office seeks input from relevant stakeholders on a number of interest areas related to the cost-effective, performance-enhancing integration of solar systems onto the electric grid, particularly at high penetration level. These include: addressing early stage research and development gaps with adaptive protection, smart inverter dynamic models, behind-the-meter grid services, grid-forming inverter controls, utilization of PV inverters as grid sensors, and cyber-secure PV plants.

System Integration stakeholders are asked to send responses to SETO.RFI.SI@ee.doe.gov and can find a template for responses in the “DOCUMENTS” section below.

Balance of Systems Soft Cost Reduction: The office seeks feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other solar stakeholders on research gaps associated with permitting, inspection, interconnection, and financing for solar.

Balance of System stakeholders are asked to send responses to SETO.RFI.BOS@ee.doe.gov and can find a template for responses in the “DOCUMENTS” Section below.

This RFI is not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA); therefore, EERE is not accepting applications at this time. EERE may issue a FOA in the future based on or related to the content and responses to this RFI; however, EERE may also elect not to issue a FOA. There is no guarantee that a FOA will be issued as a result of this RFI. Responding to this RFI does not provide any advantage or disadvantage to potential applicants if EERE chooses to issue a FOA regarding the subject matter. Final details, including the anticipated award size, quantity, and timing of EERE funded awards, will be subject to Congressional appropriations and direction.

Additional Information

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to the topic-specific email addresses no later than 12:00pm (ET) on January 7, 2019. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx) attachment to the email and no more than 20 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

Please identify answers by responding to a specific question or topic, as applicable. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they deem appropriate.

EERE will not respond to individual submissions or publicly publish a compendium of responses. A response to this RFI will not be viewed as a binding commitment to develop or pursue a project or idea.

Respondents are requested to provide the following information at the start of their response to the topic:

Company / institution name;

Company / institution contact;

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE), Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) on behalf of the Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF). The TCF is an approximately $25 million annual fund created to provide matching funds with private partners to promote promising energy technologies for commercial purposes.

The purpose of this RFI is to seek input about how OTT might improve the TCF through changes to the program and its structure. OTT seeks specific input on the TCF's structure and process, treatment of project partners, handling of non-federal matching funds, and potential to leverage other DOE programs. This RFI builds on previous DOE RFIs related to technology transfer and commercialization topics, including the 2008 Federal Register Notice on DOE Technology Transfer Practices, the 2013 Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Commercialization RFI, and OTT’s 2015 RFI, which included a section about the TCF. Responses to this RFI will serve as a complement to the input collected from these previous requests; however, respondents are encouraged to submit any relevant information to this RFI, even if it appeared in a previous response.

All responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to TCFRFI@hq.doe.gov with the subject line “TCF RFI Response” no later than January 11, 2019. All responses must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document (.doc/.docx) of no more than 5 pages in length, with black, Times New Roman, 12 point font, and 1 inch margins as an attachment to an email. The document cannot exceed 2MB in size.

This is a RFI only. OTT will not pay for information provided under this RFI and no project will be supported as a result of this RFI. This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance or financial incentives. OTT may or may not issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) based on consideration of the input received from this RFI.

This FOA has been modified to extend the Submission Deadline for Full Applications and the Expected Deadline for Replies to Reviewer Comments. Please see "0001" under the "Documents" heading below.

The "Advanced Next-Generation High-Efficiency Lightweight Wind Turbine Generator" Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will support offshore wind development through the research and development of lighter and higher efficiency generator designs which ultimately impact lower capital costs and power generation costs.

The primary objective of the FOA is to develop and test next generation advanced wind turbine drivetrain technologies that will facilitate the continued growth and acceptance of wind turbines for offshore applications. This in turn will lead to reductions in the cost of offshore wind energy.

Please note: Only For-Profit entities may apply as the Prime Applicant under this FOA. There are no restrictions on the entity types that may apply as Subrecipients.

Please carefully review the complete FOA, which can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

FOA Q&A can also be accessed under the "Documents" heading. Please review the Q&A before submitting a question, as a similar question may already have been answered.

Please note the "Submission Deadlines" below. The EERE Exchange system is designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants. Applicants are encouraged to submit Concept Papers and Full Applications at least 48 hours in advance of the related Submission Deadline.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange Helpdesk for assistance at EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Advanced Next-Generation High-Efficiency Lightweight Wind Turbine Generator.”

This is a Notice of Intent (NOI) only. EERE may issue a FOA as described, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described, or EERE may not issue a FOA at all.

This Notice is issued so that interested parties are aware of EERE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this Notice is subject to change. EERE will not respond to questions concerning this Notice. Once the FOA has been released, EERE will provide an avenue for potential Applicants to submit questions.

Please note as stated in the FOA, the official Letter of Intent deadline was 11/14/18 at 5 PM EST. Any package with a date created stamp after the noted date and time will be noncompliant with the FOA requirements and the full application will not be reviewed.

****Informational Webinar 11/1/2018 1 - 2 pm EST****

https://doe.webex.com/doe/j.php?MTID=m9e8c032091f72863dcae87f3227d8170

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Solar Energy Technology Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Advanced Systems Integration for Solar Technologies”.

This FOA supports the mission of the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) which is to support early-stage research and development to improve the performance and flexibility of solar technologies that contribute to a reliable and resilient U.S. electric grid. The office invests in innovative research efforts that securely integrate more solar energy into the grid, enhance the use, storage and dispatch of solar energy, and lower solar electricity costs.

DOE is committed to improving the affordability of energy technologies and strengthening the Energy Sector’s capability to withstand cyber and physical threats, including natural disasters. Improving the strategic location and situational awareness of solar systems can help ensure continuity of service in the face of widespread and coordinated threats. Developing innovative approaches to accelerate the transfer of solar system solutions that will improve Energy Sector resilience is also a priority.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Solar Energy Technology Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Advanced Solar Systems Integration Technologies”.

This FOA supports the mission of the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) which is to support early-stage research and development to improve the performance and flexibility of solar technologies that contribute to a reliable and resilient U.S. electric grid. The office invests in innovative research efforts that securely integrate more solar energy into the grid, enhance the use, storage and dispatch of solar energy, and lower solar electricity costs.

DOE is committed to improving the affordability of energy technologies and strengthening the Energy Sector’s capability to withstand cyber and physical threats, including natural disasters. Improving the strategic location and situational awareness of solar systems can help ensure continuity of service in the face of widespread and coordinated threats. Developing innovative approaches to accelerate the transfer of solar system solutions that will improve Energy Sector resilience is also a priority.

DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) is committed to lowering the cost and build time of hydropower and pumped storage systems, further increasing their ability to provide essential reliability services and contribute to the resilience of the grid, and continuing to reduce their environmental impacts and permitting timelines.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) contains two Topic Areas.

Topic Area 1: Facility Design Concepts for Standard Modular Hydropower Development

Topic Area 2: New Use Cases for Pumped-Storage Hydropower

Webinars:

A FOA Informational Webinar (Topic Areas 1 and 2) was held September 5, 2018 at 12:30 PM EST.

To access the webinar recording, please use the following link and password:

https://doe.webex.com/doe/lsr.php?RCID=3194db1f1d2d472bb8bca8a2e32d6966

Recording Password: HydroFOA1836

A Standard Modular Hydropower Resources Webinar (Topic Area 1 Only) was held September 6, 2018 at 1:00 PM EST.

The access the recording, please use the following link (password not required): 

https://ftp.ornl.gov/filedownload?ftp=e;dir=uP26RHNfzSze

The SMH Webinar slides may be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

Please carefully review the complete Funding Opportunity Announcement, which can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

FOA Q&A for this Funding Opportunity Announcement can also be accessed under the "Documents" heading. Please review the Q&A before submitting a question, as a similar question may already have been answered.

Please note the "Submission Deadlines" below. The EERE Exchange system is designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance - EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov.

The purpose of Modification 000002 is to extend the response deadline to October 22,2018.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is requesting input from industry (including but not limited to contract research organizations, contract manufacturing organizations, catalyst manufacturers, and catalyst research consortia), academia, National Laboratories, government agencies, and other biofuels and bioproducts stakeholders on “custom catalyst production capability for biochemical and thermochemical processes”. Specifically, BETO seeks information to help identify and understand additional areas of research, capabilities, and yet-to-be-addressed challenges pertinent to small-scale production (typically in multi-kilogram quantities) of custom catalysts used in technology development and engineering solutions for the efficient conversion of lignocellulosic, waste, and algal feedstocks to produce biofuels and bioproducts. The conversion technologies of interest include biological, thermochemical or hybrid processes. The class of catalysts include but are not limited to, for example, enzymes, immobilized enzymes, inorganic, and organic; and both homogeneous and heterogeneous types.

BETO, in addition, seeks information on capabilities and functionalities that need to be developed to be able to effectively research and test reactive processes with particular emphasis on unit operations and equipment comprising process development units (PDUs) located at National Laboratories that will enable successful transition of early stage research to engineering-scale research.

For purposes of potentially developing future funding opportunities, BETO is interested in understanding the opportunities and challenges associated with small-scale production of custom catalysts capable of minimizing / eliminating variations in catalyst performance while used for bench-scale and engineering-scale process development of biological, thermochemical and hybrid conversion technologies.

BETO is also interested in understanding the need for operational and capability enhancements for unit operations and equipment comprising PDUs that help to transition early stage research to engineering-scale research.

This RFI is not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA); therefore, EERE is not accepting applications at this time. EERE may issue a FOA in the future based on or related to the content and responses to this RFI; however, EERE may also elect not to issue a FOA. There is no guarantee that a FOA will be issued as a result of this RFI. Responding to this RFI does not provide any advantage or disadvantage to potential applicants if EERE chooses to issue a FOA regarding the subject matter.

Any information obtained as a result of this RFI is intended to be used by the Government on a non-attribution basis for planning and strategy development; this RFI does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals or abstracts. Your response to this notice will be treated as information only. EERE will review and consider all responses in its formulation of program strategies for the identified materials of interest that are the subject of this request. EERE will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred in responding to this RFI. Respondents are advised that EERE is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFI. Responses to this RFI do not bind EERE to any further actions related to this topic.

Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to structure future programs and FOAs and/or otherwise be made available to the public, respondents are strongly advised to NOT include any information in their responses that might be considered business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential. If, however, a respondent chooses to submit business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information, it must be clearly and conspicuously marked as such in the response.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to CustomCatalystRFI@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on September 28, 2018. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx) attachment to the email, and no more than 15 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

Please identify your answers by responding to specific questions and/or topics listed in the full RFI, as applicable. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they wish.

EERE will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. A response to this RFI will not be viewed as a binding commitment to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. EERE will not pay for information provided under this RFI and no project will be supported as a result of this RFI. This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance or financial incentives. EERE may or may not issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) based on consideration of the input received from this RFI.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s vision of the H2@Scale initiative is to enable affordable, reliable and secure energy through hydrogen production from diverse domestic resources and utilization across multiple sectors. Through this initiative, the DOE aims to incentivize the research and development (R&D) of transformational technologies that reduce the cost of hydrogen production and distribution technologies, diversify the feedstocks available for affordable hydrogen production, enable new end uses of hydrogen, enhance the flexibility of the electric power grid, reduce emissions through novel uses of affordable hydrogen, generate jobs in growing industries, and provide global technology leadership for export of next-generation energy solutions. The objective of this Request for Information (RFI) is to identify and quantify domestic resources compatible with large-scale hydrogen production, and to identify pathways to enable effective near- and long-term leveraging of these resources in major industries requiring affordable, secure, domestic, and scalable hydrogen supplies. This RFI complements the DOE Fuel Cell Technologies Office’s (FCTO’s) early-stage R&D activities and is intended to leverage the private sector to identify technical, cost and infrastructure barriers to deployment and widespread adoption of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. This RFI also complements FCTO’s RFI titled Identifying Priorities for Reducing Barriers to Deployment of Hydrogen Infrastructure which was released on June 13, 2018.

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This RFI is not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA); therefore, the DOE is not accepting applications at this time. The DOE may issue a FOA in the future based on or related to the content and responses to this RFI; however, the DOE may also elect not to issue a FOA. There is no guarantee that a FOA will be issued as a result of this RFI. Responding to this RFI does not provide any advantage or disadvantage to potential applicants if the DOE chooses to issue a FOA regarding the subject matter.

Any information obtained as a result of this RFI is intended to be used by the Government on a non-attribution basis for planning and strategy development; this RFI does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals or abstracts. Your response to this notice will be treated as information only. The DOE will review and consider all responses in its formulation of program strategies for the identified materials of interest that are the subject of this request. The DOE will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred in responding to this RFI. Respondents are advised that the DOE is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFI. Responses to this RFI do not bind the DOE to any further actions related to this topic.

Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to structure future programs and FOAs and/or otherwise be made available to the public, respondents are strongly advised to NOT include any information in their responses that might be considered business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential. If, however, a respondent chooses to submit business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information, it must be clearly and conspicuously marked as such in the response.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted online or by email in accordance with the "RFI Submission Guidelines" detailed in the RFI. The submission must be received no later than 5:00 pm (ET) on October 31, 2018.

The DOE will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. A response to this RFI will not be viewed as a binding commitment to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. EERE will not pay for information provided under this RFI and no project will be supported as a result of this RFI. This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance or financial incentives. EERE may or may not issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) based on consideration of the input received from this RFI.

The purpose of this modification is to extend the application due date.  Please see the updated FOA document in the Documents section below for more details.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technology Office (GTO) Machine Learning for Geothermal Energy funding opportunity announcement (FOA) supports projects that will develop new analytical tools for finding and developing geothermal resources and establish the practice of machine learning in geothermal operations. The rapidly advancing field of Machine Learning (ML) offers substantial opportunities for technology advancement and cost reduction throughout the geothermal project lifecycle, from resource exploration to power plant operations.

Under this funding opportunity, GTO is interested in two topic areas:

Topic 1: Machine Learning for Geothermal Exploration - GTO seeks projects that advance geothermal exploration through the application of machine learning techniques to geological, geophysical, geochemical, borehole, and other relevant datasets. Of particular interest to GTO are projects that will identify data acquisition targets and build community datasets for future work.

Topic 2: Advanced Analytics for Efficiency and Automation in Geothermal Operations - GTO seeks projects that apply advanced analytics to power plant and other operator datasets, with the goal of improving operations and resource management.

For questions and answers pertaining to this FOA, please reference the DE-FOA-0001956 Machine Learning FAQ Log in FOA Documents.

The eXCHANGE system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of, and with the Applicant's concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance; and c) has submitted the application through eXCHANGE within 24 hours of the FOA's posted deadline.

A second modification has been made to the FOA. This modification revises the dates for three FOA activities. Please see Modification 0002 Advanced Wind R&D FOA 1924, which can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

The Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) invests in early-stage applied energy science research, development, and validation activities for United States land-based, offshore and distributed wind power generation, manufacturing, and market barriers to lower wind energy costs, increase capacity, accelerate reliable and safe energy production, and address environmental and human use considerations.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) contains three Topic Areas.

Topic Area 1: Advancing Smart Curtailment Strategies

Topic Area 2: Advanced Component Research and Development

Topic Area 3: Development and Validation of Offshore Wind Monitoring and Mitigation Technologies 

There will not be a webinar for this FOA. Please carefully review the complete FOA, which can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

FOA Q&A can also be accessed under the "Documents" heading. Please review the Q&A before submitting a question, as a similar question may already have been answered.

Please note the "Submission Deadlines" below. The EERE Exchange system is designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants. Applicants are encouraged to submit Concept Papers and Full Applications at least 48 hours in advance of the related Submission Deadline.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance - EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technology Office (GTO) Zonal Isolation for Manmade Geothermal Reservoirs funding opportunity announcement (FOA) supports early-stage development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) tools and technologies, and will seek to improve the performance and economics of EGS systems by funding research in zonal isolation.

Zonal isolation technologies can radically improve the performance and economics of EGS, or manmade geothermal reservoirs. These technologies provide the ability to target specific zones for stimulation activities, which can enable the command and control of fracture location and the economy of resources. In turn, this reduces development costs and operational risks associated with EGS development and promotes more power from fewer wellbores.

Under this funding opportunity, GTO is interested in two topic areas:

Topic 1 - Invention and Innovative Design of Zonal Isolation Technologies and Techniques for EGS Stimulation; and,
Topic 2 - Adaption of Existing Zonal Isolation Technologies for EGS Stimulation.

The projects selected from this FOA will aim to develop reliable zonal isolation tools and technologies that:
• Present low risk to wellbore integrity or the conductivity of fractures;
• Can operate at high-temperatures in corrosive, hard rock environments for extended periods of time; and
• Withstand large pressure differentials.

For questions and answers pertaining to this FOA, please reference the DE-FOA-0001945 Zonal Isolation 2018 FAQ Log in FOA Documents.

The eXCHANGE system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Full Application submissions.

The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov).

The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of, and with the Applicant's concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance; and c) has submitted the application through eXCHANGE within 24 hours of the FOA's posted deadline.

Informational Webinar: The Informational Webinar mentioned in the FOA is scheduled for July 5, 2018 at 2:00PM ET.
https://doe.webex.com/doe/onstage/g.php?MTID=e79ab53873f11cc658018eb6923f78827

The purpose of this Notice is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), on behalf of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), intends to issue Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0001905 entitled "Energy-Water Desalination Hub".

This FOA will support the establishment of an Energy Innovation Hub in the area of Energy-Water Desalination (referred to as the “Hub”) to accelerate transformational advances in science and engineering focused on reducing the energy and cost requirements of desalination to provide clean and safe water. The Hub will include highly collaborative research teams, spanning multiple scientific, engineering, and where appropriate, economic and public policy disciplines. By bringing together top talent from across the full spectrum of research and development (R&D) performers—including universities, private industry, non-profits, and National Laboratories—the Hub will serve as the world-leading R&D center in Energy-Water Desalination.

THIS IS A NOTICE OF INTENT (NOI) ONLY. This Notice is issued so that interested parties are aware of the EERE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this Notice is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different from the FOA described herein, or EERE may not issue a FOA at all.

EERE will not respond to questions concerning this Notice. Once the FOA has been released, EERE will provide an avenue for potential Applicants to submit questions.

Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in July 2018.

Please review the full Notice of Intent, which can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) on behalf of its Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Program (referred to herein as the “Program”) which includes coordinated activities across all offices within DOE that are engaged in hydrogen and fuel cell activities. The Program seeks input on priority research and development (R&D) areas for reducing regulatory barriers to deployment of hydrogen technologies, with a particular focus on hydrogen infrastructure. In addition to a focus on transportation and streamlining private sector roll out of hydrogen fueling stations, the Program seeks input relating to large-scale hydrogen deployments for applications such as energy storage, grid services, hydrogen transport, natural gas blending or other end uses.

The goals of this RFI, in the context of developing and using hydrogen as an energy carrier across sectors and for diverse applications, are to: (a) Understand the effects of regulations imposed on industry, particularly the parts of industry responsible for hydrogen infrastructure; (b) Identify Federal regulations, codes, and state/local laws and identify the related compliance costs; and (c) Recommend actions to reduce the burdens of regulatory requirements. FCTO seeks feedback on (1) Infrastructure for Near-Term Transportation Applications; (2) Large-scale Applications; (3) Large-scale Hydrogen Delivery and Storage; (4) Grid Support (H2@Scale); and on topics related to the issues within this RFI that could be considered for future prizes.

This RFI is not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA); therefore, EERE is not accepting applications at this time. EERE may issue a FOA in the future based on or related to the content and responses to this RFI; however, EERE may also elect not to issue a FOA. There is no guarantee that a FOA will be issued as a result of this RFI. Responding to this RFI does not provide any advantage or disadvantage to potential applicants if EERE chooses to issue a FOA regarding the subject matter. 

Any information obtained as a result of this RFI is intended to be used by the Government on a non-attribution basis for planning and strategy development; this RFI does not constitute a formal solicitation for proposals or abstracts. Your response to this notice will be treated as information only. EERE will review and consider all responses in its formulation of program strategies for the identified materials of interest that are the subject of this request. EERE will not provide reimbursement for costs incurred in responding to this RFI. Respondents are advised that EERE is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFI. Responses to this RFI do not bind EERE to any further actions related to this topic.

Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to structure future programs and FOAs and/or otherwise be made available to the public, respondents are strongly advised to NOT include any information in their responses that might be considered business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential. If, however, a respondent chooses to submit business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential information, it must be clearly and conspicuously marked as such in the response.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to FY18FCTOBARRIERSRFI@EE.DOE.GOV no later than 5:00pm (ET) on August 10, 2018. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx) attachment to the email, with 12 point font, and 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

Please identify your answers by responding to specific questions and/or topics listed in the full RFI, as applicable. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they wish.

The mission of BTO’s Residential Buildings Integration (RBI) Program is to accelerate energy performance improvements in existing and new residential buildings using an integrated building systems approach to achieve peak energy performance. The RBI Program’s market outcome goal is to reduce, by 2025, the energy used for space conditioning and water heating in single-family homes by 40% from 2010 levels. RBI’s focus on space conditioning and water heating offers the best opportunities for influencing residential energy use.

With this FOA, RBI will select building science project teams in 2018 for the Building America Program to conduct early stage research and validation of energy performance improvements in existing and new residential buildings with integrated building systems approaches, and achieve optimal home energy performance. These Building America teams will work with industry partners and real world homes to develop and validate technologies and practices that achieve optimal energy and cost performance while effectively managing related risks (e.g., indoor air quality and moisture durability). This FOA builds on work begun in the 2015, 2016, and 2017 Building America FOAs, and is focused primarily on addressing remaining gaps and objectives in the Building America Research-to-Market Plan.

This FOA has three (3) topics, described below. Applicants may submit multiple applications, but each individual application must be submitted to either Topic 1,  Topic 2, or Topic 3, but not all. Applications will be evaluated using the technical review criteria of the selected topic.

Topic 1 - Baseline In-situ Fault Analysis in Residential Comfort Systems

Topic 2 - Integration of Advanced Residential Envelope and HVAC Systems

Topic 3 - Gap Analysis of Building Industry Standard Practices

The full Funding Opportunity Announcement is published at EERE-Exchange.energy.gov.

For questions and answers pertaining to this FOA, please reference the DE-FOA-0001824 Building America FAQ Log in FOA Documents.

The eXCHANGE system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Letter of Intent and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.
Applicants that experience issuse with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@go.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@go.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of, and with the Applicant's concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance; and c) has submitted the application through eXCHANGE within 24 hours of the FOA's posted deadline.

Informational Webinar: The Informational Webinar mentioned in the FOA is scheduled for Monday, May 14, 2018 at 3:00PM ET.

https://doe.webex.com/doe/onstage/g.php?MTID=e0a69392615f1e5362e49f957d8c7cfff

Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), invites input from the public regarding opportunities associated with applying machine learning techniques toward challenges in the geosciences that are relevant to geothermal energy. With the overall goals of establishing the practice of machine learning (ML) in the geothermal industry and maximizing the value of the rich datasets utilized in the geosciences, GTO is seeking input in three areas: Identifying the most promising applications of machine learning in subsurface R&D, building open community datasets capable of supporting the most advanced ML techniques, and leveraging crowd-sourced R&D through alternative funding mechanisms. As ML is already well- established in some industries, GTO is also very interested in feedback from outside of the geothermal community. The information requested is intended to advance GTO goals in geothermal development, though there are likely crosscutting applications with other industries operating in the subsurface. Opportunities for partnerships with other industries are also of interest. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather feedback from stakeholders prior to DOE potentially issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).

This RFI is not a FOA: therefore, DOE is not accepting
applications at this time. All responses to this RFI must be provided as an attachment (in Microsoft Word format) to an e-mail message addressed to machinelearninggeo@ee.doe.gov. Responses must be received no later than 5:00 PM EDT on June 6, 2018. The full content of the announcement can be found on the EERE Exchange website at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is issuing, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0001908, entitled “Efficient Carbon Utilization in Algal Systems.”

BETO’s mission is to accelerate the development of a bioeconomy that can strengthen U.S. energy security, economic viability , and environmental quality. Since 2009, BETO has used its statutory authority under the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 2005, §932(c) to implement an algal biofuels program: the Advanced Algal Systems (AAS) Program (also called the Algae Program and the Program). Advanced biofuels and bioproducts made from algae have the potential to enhance energy security, create domestic jobs, enable energy affordability, and spur the advancement of the bioeconomy. The objective of the Advanced Algal Systems Program is to accelerate the commercialization of algal biofuels by overcoming barriers identified in the 2010 National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap, updated in June 2016. BETO’s Algae Program is implementing a long-term applied research and development strategy to support the bioeconomy by lowering the costs of production for algal biofuels and bioproducts. 

To apply to this FOA, Applicants must register with and submit application materials through EERE Exchange (this website), EERE’s online application portal.

The Exchange system enforces hard deadlines for Letters of Intenet and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission PRIOR to the deadline, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE‐ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The Exchange helpdesk &/or the EERE Exchange System Administrators (Exchange@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE‐ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov).

The Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange System Administrators (Exchange@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of and with the Applicant’s concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the Exchange helpdesk for assistance, and c) has submitted the application through Exchange within 24 hours of the FOA’s posted deadline.

Applicants must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov before submitting an application and must provide a valid Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number in the application. Failure to comply may result in a determination that the applicant is not qualified to receive a Federal award, and that determination could be used as a basis for making a Federal award to another applicant.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announces a notice of availability of funds for financial assistance to address gaps in current research and development (R&D) which hinder better utilizing waste streams (e.g. lignin, CO2, and biosolids), improving organic and inorganic catalysts to increase conversion efficiency and decrease costs, and creating high-value performance-advantaged bioproducts to allow for more profitable biorefineries.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) contains six Topic Areas as follows:
• Topic 1: ChemCatBio Industrial Partnerships (CCB)
• Topic 2: Agile BioFoundry Industry Partnership
Initiative (ABF)
• Topic 3: Performance Advantaged Bioproducts (PABP)
• Topic 4: Biofuels and Bioproducts from Wet Organic Waste Streams (WWTE)
• Topic 5: Rewiring Carbon Utilization (Rewiring)
• Topic 6: Lignin Valorization (Lignin)

Each topic area contains different specific areas of interest, required descriptions, and metrics. Each also has different feedstock requirements which are outlined in Appendix D of the FOA document.

To apply to this FOA, Applicants must register with and submit application materials through EERE Exchange (this website), EERE’s online application portal.

The Exchange system enforces hard deadlines for Letter of Intent and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission PRIOR to the deadline, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE‐ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange System Administrators (Exchange@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE‐ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov).

The Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange System Administrators (Exchange@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of and with the Applicant’s concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the Exchange helpdesk for assistance, and c) has submitted the application through Exchange within 24 hours of the FOA’s posted deadline.

Applicants must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov before submitting an application and must provide a valid Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number in the application. Failure to comply may result in a determination that the applicant is not qualified to receive a Federal award, and that determination could be used as a basis for making a Federal award to another applicant.

EERE conducted an informational webinar on Tuesday, May 15, 2018 3:00 ET. Attendance was not mandatory and will not positively or negatively impact the overall review of any applicant submissions. The webinar recording can be found at:

https://doe.webex.com/doe/ldr.php?RCID=ff640a8cf352e27d3f2331526f343154

Password: 3Dr9NGXw

Modification 00001: (June 7, 2018)

The purpose of this modification is to update the following:

Section I.A – Project Requirements:

Edited: Projects must evaluate crop performance (i.e., yield and potential for profitability) and environmental performance over at least three (3) annual harvest cycles to provide empirical data on newer varieties of energy crops relative to traditional cropping and pasture systems. For herbaceous species, this must include at least 3 harvest cycles. For short rotation woody crop species, this must include at least 1 harvest cycle.

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announces a notice of availability of funds for financial assistance to accelerate research and development related to the production of affordable and sustainable non-food energy crops that can be used as feedstocks for the production of price-competitive biofuels and bioproducts. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) supports EERE’s performance metrics to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, increase the viability and affordability of renewable energy technologies and processes, and spur growth in the domestic bioeconomy.

To apply to this FOA, Applicants must register with and submit application materials through EERE Exchange (this website), EERE’s online application portal.

The Exchange system enforces hard deadlines for Letters of Intenet and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission PRIOR to the deadline, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE‐ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The Exchange helpdesk &/or the EERE Exchange System Administrators (Exchange@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE‐ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov).

The Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange System Administrators (Exchange@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of and with the Applicant’s concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the Exchange helpdesk for assistance, and c) has submitted the application through Exchange within 24 hours of the FOA’s posted deadline.

Applicants must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov before submitting an application and must provide a valid Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number in the application. Failure to comply may result in a determination that the applicant is not qualified to receive a Federal award, and that determination could be used as a basis for making a Federal award to another applicant.

Modification 000002:

The purpose of this modification is to update the following:
1) Section IV.D.iii – Application and Submission Information, Content and Form of the Full Application, Statement of Project Objectives:

Edited: "Applicants are required to complete a Statement of Project Objectives (SOPO) for the entire scope of the project...The first task of the project will be a pre-verification of application data. Applicants should include the following language in their SOPO to represent this Sub Task in Budget Period 1..."

Modification 000001:

The purpose of this modification is to update the following:
1) Section III.A.ii – Eligibility Information, Eligible Entities, Domestic Entities:

Inserted: For purposes of this FOA, all U.S. Territories are considered state government entities and are eligible to apply for funding as a Prime Recipient or Subrecipient.

2) Section IV.C.i – Application and Submission Information, Content and Form of the Letter of Intent, Letter of Intent Content Requirements:

Edited: To be eligible to submit a Full Application, applicants must submit a Letter of Intent by the specified due date and time. Letters of Intent will be used by EERE to plan for the merit review process. Applicants will be neither encouraged nor discouraged from submitting a Full Application based on the information provided in the letter of intent. EERE will not provide feedback on the letters of intent. The letters should not contain any proprietary or sensitive business information.

EERE will not review or consider ineligible Letters of Intent (see Section III of the FOA).

Each applicant must provide the following information as part of the Letter of Intent:
• Project Title;
• Lead Organization;
• Organization Type (Business < 500 Employees; Business > 1000 Employees; Business 500-1000 Employees; Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC); Government-Owned, Government Operated; Non-Profit; University);
• % of effort contributed by the Lead Organization;
• The Project Team, including:
o The Principal Investigator for the Prime Recipient;
o Team Members (i.e., Subrecipients); and
o Key Participants (i.e., individuals who contribute
in a substantive, measureable way to the execution of
the proposed project);
• Technical Topic or Area; and
• Abstract – The abstract provided should be not more than 4000 characters in length, and should provide a truncated explanation of the proposed project.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to identify, evaluate, and select applications proposing research, development and execution plans to test engineering principles and unit operations for the production and testing of Drop-in Renewable Jet Fuel Blendstocks and Drop-In Renewable Diesel Fuel Blendstocks from eligible feedstocks. In Topic Area 3, the FOA also seeks proposals to convert wet waste feedstocks, including municipal solid wastes and biosolids, into biopower or intermediates used to produce biopower.

Scale-up and verification of these process technologies is essential to enable the industry to design, construct, and operate pilot-scale facilities. This FOA seeks applications for projects to bridge technologies from scientific research to engineering, to integrate unit operations, and to engage in the R&D of integrated processes designed to produce drop-in renewable jet fuel blendstocks, drop-in renewable diesel fuel blendstocks, and biopower. Applicants proposing to produce drop-in renewable jet fuel blendstocks and drop-in renewable diesel fuel blendstocks will be required to verify that resulting fuels meet or exceed industry/market specifications and complete basic engineering packages to enable preliminary cost estimation and techno-economic analysis.

This funding opportunity contains three topic areas as follows:

- Topic Area 1: Drop-in Renewable Jet Fuel Blendstocks

- Topic Area 2: Drop-in Renewable Diesel Fuel Blendstocks

- Topic Area 3: Biomass, Biosolids, and Municipal Solid Waste to Energy

To apply to this FOA, Applicants must register with and submit application materials through EERE Exchange (this website), EERE’s online application portal.

The Exchange system enforces hard deadlines for Letters of Intenet and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission PRIOR to the deadline, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE‐ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The Exchange helpdesk &/or the EERE Exchange System Administrators (Exchange@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE‐ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov).

The Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange System Administrators (Exchange@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of and with the Applicant’s concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the Exchange helpdesk for assistance, and c) has submitted the application through Exchange within 24 hours of the FOA’s posted deadline.

Applicants must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov before submitting an application and must provide a valid Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number in the application. Failure to comply may result in a determination that the applicant is not qualified to receive a Federal award, and that determination could be used as a basis for making a Federal award to another applicant.

Amendment 000001 issued to clarify the minimum cost share requirements, refine wording for AOI 1b and amend AOIs 5a and 5b.

To support U.S. economic growth and offer consumers and businesses additional transportation choices, the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Vehicle Technologies Office invests in early-stage research to enable future private-sector development and commercialization of affordable, energy-efficient transportation technologies that can strengthen our energy security.

This FOA seeks research projects to address priorities in the following areas: batteries and electrification; materials; technology integration and energy efficient mobility systems; energy-efficient commercial off-road vehicle technologies; and co-optimized advanced engine and fuel technologies to improve fuel economy.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) invests in research and development (R&D) as part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) broad portfolio approach to addressing our Nation’s energy and environmental challenges.

This FOA announces DOE’s intent to support marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) research and development projects in three Topic Areas:

(1) Early Stage Device Design Research

(2) Controls and Power Take Off (PTO) Design Integration and Testing

(3) Dissemination of Environmental Data and Analyses to Facilitate the Marine Energy Regulatory Process.

Please carefully review the complete Funding Opportunity Announcement, which can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

A pre-recorded informational webinar has been posted for this FOA and can be viewed here -

https://youtu.be/7KEkUHNyZPQ

A PowerPoint version of the webinar can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

FOA Q&A for this Funding Opportunity Announcement can also be accessed under the "Documents" heading below. Please review the Q&A before submitting a question, as a similar question may already have been answered.

Please note the "Submission Deadlines" below. The EERE Exchange system is designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance - EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov.

The purpose of this Notice of Opportunity for Technical Assistance (NOTA) is to perform techno-economic studies, power market analyses, financial analyses, and a valuation analysis to evaluate the long-term benefits and costs of two selected Pumped-Storage Hydropower (PSH) projects. These studies will provide PSH developers with a number of analyses to estimate the value of a proposed PSH project, including: value of bulk power/storage capacity; energy arbitrage; value of ancillary services; power system stability; and transmission benefits. The studies will also investigate and compare PSH financial revenue streams under current market structures relative to the economic value of PSH to the grid.

Total Technical Assistance is valued at $3,000,000. DOE will provide the funding to the team that will provide the Technical Assistance for the selected projects. There is no direct financial assistance available under this NOTA.

An informational webinar was held on May 24, 2018. The webinar presentation can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

Applicants are encouraged to submit optional Letters of Intent by 5 p.m. ET on June 12, 2018. The Letter of Intent should be sent by e-mail to WPTONOTA@ee.doe.gov.

The Q&A for this NOTA can be accessed under the Documents heading below.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office (BTO) Emerging Technologies (ET) Program is working in partnership with industry, national laboratories, and academia to develop innovative energy saving technologies, systems, tools, and models that could lead to a significant reduction in building energy consumption.

The ET Program has identified the program-specific goal of supporting the development of cost-effective technologies capable of reducing the energy use of typical buildings by 45% by 2030, relative to high-efficiency technologies available in 2010. Government investment through mechanisms such as the annual solid-state lighting (SSL) funding opporunity targets early-stage R&D enabling industry to develop novel technologies that can improve the efficiency and reduce the energy costs of the nation's buildings.

The objective of this funding opporunity is to select a diverse portfolio of early-stage R&D projects projects which can contribute to achieving:

• Maximized energy-efficiency of SSL products;
• Improved lifetime, color quality, and lighting system performance for SSL technology; and,
• Reduced costs of SSL sources and luminaires.

Success in this portfolio of early-stage R&D is expected to further contribute to the growth, leadership, and sustainability of domestic U.S. advanced manufacturing within ghe SSL industry.

The informational webinar for this FOA took place on May 7, 2018. A copy of the presentation can be found under Announcement Documents. Questions received during the presentation, and their respective answers, can be found under the FOA's Question and Answer section.

The eXCHANGE system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for  Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@go.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

UPDATE: There is a new FOA Webinar link below.  Applicants, please use this link to join the webinar scheduled for May 8th.

There is a new Application for Finanical Assistance (SF 424) uploaded for applicants to download and submit with full applications.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) 2018 FOA supports research and development of innovative energy saving technologies, systems, tools, and models that could lead to significant reduction in building energy consumption.

BENEFIT 2018 focuses on early-stage R&D to enable the development of novel technologies that can improve efficiency and reduce the energy costs of the nation’s buildings and facilitate interaction with the electricity grid. Under this funding opportunity, BTO is interested in six topic areas:

Topic 1: Advanced Separation Technologies for Building Energy Efficiency

Topic 2: Advanced Building Materials

Topic 3: High-Performance Windows

Topic 4: Novel Approaches for Cyber-physical Systems in Buildings

Topic 5: Integration Research of Advanced Commercial Energy Efficiency Packages

Topic 6: Advancements in Natural Gas and Other Fuel-driven Equipment

For questions and answers pertaining to this FOA, please reference the DE-FOA-0001825 BENEFIT 2018 FAQ Log in FOA Documents.

The eXCHANGE system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of, and with the Applicant's concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance; and c) has submitted the application through eXCHANGE within 24 hours of the FOA's posted deadline.

Informational Webinar: The Informational Webinar mentioned in the FOA is scheduled for May 8, 2018 at 11:00AM ET.  

https://doe.webex.com/doe/j.php?MTID=mb13832750da3129382101dfdec4cdad8 

Meeting number (access code): 903 763 876

Meeting password: BENEFIT18

Modification No. 0001 - See the Modification table in the FOA. All changes are highlighted in yellow.

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0001880: Efficient Drilling for Geothermal Energy, is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO).

The FOA contains three Topic Areas. The first two involve early stage research and development (R&D), while the third solicits projects that incentivize the risk-averse geothermal industry to adopt innovations earlier in the technology R&D cycle.

Topic Area 1: Reducing Non-Drilling Time

Topic Area 2: Advanced Drilling Technologies

Topic Area 3: Innovative Partnership Models

Please carefully review the complete Funding Opportunity Announcement, which can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below.

An informational webinar was held on May 2, 2018, at 2:00 PM (EST). The presentation slides and the script read during the webinar are posted below.

FOA Q&A for this Funding Opportunity Announcement can be accessed under the "Documents" heading below. Please review the FOA Q&A before submitting a question, as a similar question may already have been answered.

Please note the "Submission Deadlines" below. The EERE Exchange system is designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper (required) and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance - EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov.

The FOA will support early-stage research that spans the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) portfolio, seeking to advance both solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) technologies and to facilitate the swift integration of those technologies into the nation’s electricity grid. It also is designed to support efforts that prepare the workforce for the solar industry’s future needs. The FOA is organized into the following high level Topic Areas:

Topic 1: Advanced Solar Systems Integration Technologies describes SETO research priorities in the seamless integration of high penetrations of solar energy onto the nation’s electricity grid.

Topic 2: Concentrating Solar Thermal Power Research and Development describes SETO research priorities that support solar technologies that focus sunlight to generate and store high-temperature heat for electricity generation and other end uses.

Topic 3: Photovoltaic Research and Development describes SETO research priorities that support the further development of photovoltaic technologies that improve system reliability, annual energy yield, demonstrate performance of novel PV devices and develop new PV materials.

Topic 4: Improving and Expanding the Solar Industry through Workforce Initiatives describes SETO research priorities that support solar workforce development.

Webinar links:

**Note prior registration is not necessary.

Topic 1: Advanced Solar Systems Integration Technologies Webinar

April 23, 2018 1-2 pm EST

https://meetings.doe.gov/orion/joinmeeting.do?MTID=8ed931c4b7a7dfc06b4c54aa8db46055

Topic 2: Concentrating Solar Thermal Power Research and Development Webinar

April 23, 2018 2-3 pm EST

https://meetings.doe.gov/orion/joinmeeting.do?MTID=7993ba670f1327aeda96b3584f541b1a

Topic 3: Photovoltaic Research and Development Webinar

April 24, 2018 4-5 pm EST

https://meetings.doe.gov/orion/joinmeeting.do?MTID=6aa33236e167ca68666a5b3f420283b8

Topic 4: Improving and Expanding the Solar Industry through Workforce Initiatives Webinar

April 24, 2018 1-2 pm EST

https://meetings.doe.gov/orion/joinmeeting.do?MTID=516a967629e43ac5ce6ef51e0a0d7015

Applicants should note that the SAM registration and renewal process has been updated recently and now requires applicants to mailing a notarized letter to the SAM processing office in London, KY. The letter must formally identify an Entity Administrator for each applicant. This additional step can result in longer processing times. More information can be found here:

https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/organization/federal-acquisition-service/office-of-systems-management/integrated-award-environment-iae/sam-update

The U.S. Department of Energy seeks to understand the key technical and other barriers that may prevent long-term access to low-cost water supplies that could be best addressed through challenges and prize competitions. For the purposes of this Request for Information (RFI), challenges and prize competitions are tools and approaches the Federal government and others can use to engage a broad range of stakeholders, including the general public, in developing solutions to difficult problems. Challenges and prize competitions rely on competitive structures to drive innovation among participants and usually offer rewards (financial and/or other) to winners and/or finalists. DOE may use the information provided through this RFI to develop challenges and prize competitions to address key water issues. This RFI is not designed to solicit input on DOE’s broader R&D efforts on affordable water.

Amendment 000003 was issued on April 16, 2018 to to modify the submission deadline for Full Applications and clarify the technical requirements of both Areas of Interest.

Amendment 000002 was issued March 14, 2018 to correct the submission deadline for Concept Papers, clarify the technical requirements of both Areas of Interest; clarify the allowable number of Concept Papers and Full Applications by colleges, universities, institutions of higher learning, and university‐affiliated research institutions; change the recommended section lengths of the Full Application Technical Volume; and update hyperlinks in the footnotes.

Amendment 000001 issued on March 1, 2018 to change the date for the anticipated date for the concept paper recommendation notifications and to change the submission deadline for full applications. Additionally, this amendment makes updates to the Applications Specifically Not of Interest and clarifies the allowable number of Concept Papers.

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The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) seeks to conduct research and development activities to further the utilization of cost-effective, highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP) via Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0001750. The FOA includes two areas of interest to research enabling technologies for CHP systems that are specifically designed to provide cost-effective support to the electric grid. Such systems would have the benefits of conventional CHP while at the same time being able to sell electricity to and serve as a stabilizing factor for the Grid.

Informational Webinar: EERE will conduct one informational webinar during the FOA process. It will be held before the due date for the Concept Papers. Attendance is not mandatory and will not positively or negatively impact the overall review of any Applicant submissions.

Please register for the Applicant Webinar on March 2, 2018 10:00 AM EDT at:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/376450080550801153

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Participants can use their telephone or computer mic & speakers (VoIP).

United States: +1 (914) 614-3221
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the webinar

Access Code: 664-621-984

The objective of this FOA is research-enabling technologies for flexible CHP systems that are specifically designed to provide cost-effective support to the electric grid. The systems will enable small to mid-size manufacturers to gain the benefits of CHP systems while at the same time providing a resource to the grid so that it is more reliable, resilient and secure.

The Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), invites input from the public regarding challenges and opportunities associated with drilling geothermal wells. With the overall goal of better understanding barriers to lower the costs and risks of geothermal drilling for the purpose of electricity production, we are seeking input in three areas: defining the major challenges, research and development opportunities, and process improvement opportunities. The information requested is intended to ascertain where there are opportunities to reduce the costs of drilling, facilitating increased geothermal energy production in the United States.

The purpose of this Notice of Intent is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy intends to issue, on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement, number DE-FOA-0001813 entitled "Medium / Heavy Duty, On-Road Natural Gas Engine research and Development".    The objective is to address barriers to adoption of natural gas vehicles through early-stage research on medium- and heavy-duty on-road engine technologies.  The programmatic goal is to enable natural gas engines that can cost-effectively achieve diesel-like efficiency while meeting current and future emissions standards.  A complete engine development project is outside the scope of this effort, but engine subsystem research must have a plausible pathway to higher engine efficiency.  Emission control technology projects addressing criteria pollutants and GHGs are desired, with consideration that future standards are likely to influence NGV technology adoption.  Potential technologies include (but are not limited to) combustion strategies, engine subsystems, emission control systems, fuel systems, and controls.

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to the EERE Exchange website in the October 2017 timeframe.  EERE plans to issue the FOA in October 2017 via the EERE Exchange website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/. If Applicants wish to receive official notifications and information from EERE regarding the FOA, they should register in EERE Exchange. When the FOA is released, applications will be accepted only through EERE Exchange.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Solar Energy Technology Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Solar Desalination”.

This FOA supports research, development, and potential demonstration of early stage technologies that can significantly reduce the costs of desalination powered by solar thermal energy. Rather than utilizing high-value electricity as an energy input, solar thermal desalination can achieve lower costs than current reverse osmosis systems by lowering the cost of collecting and storing solar thermal energy and increasing the efficiency of thermal desalination technologies. Additionally, thermal desalination can be utilized over a wide range of salt content, making it attractive for applications that require very high salinity feedwater or zero-liquid discharge. Applicants will be expected to propose ideas that have the potential to dramatically decrease the cost of producing solar thermal energy, advance early-stage thermal desalination technologies, or design novel integrated systems that creatively use solar thermal energy to lower the cost of producing fresh water.

It is anticipated that the FOA may include the following Areas of Interest:

Area of Interest 1 – Low cost solar thermal heat - innovative concepts that have the potential to lower the cost of solar thermal collection, transport, and storage below conventional methods of generating heat.

Area of Interest 2 – Innovative thermal desalination techniques - Novel, early-stage thermal desalination technologies that are well suited to be coupled with solar generated heat.

Area of Interest 3 – Solar thermal integrated desalination - Integrated solar thermal desalination systems showing the potential for low-cost desalinated water.

Area of Interest 4 – Solar thermal desalination analysis - Analytic tools, such as systems models, for economic evaluation and resource optimization with solar thermal desalination.

Please access the complete Notice of Intent under the "Documents" heading below.

This is a Notice of Intent (NOI) only. EERE may issue a FOA as described, may issue a FOA that is significantly different from the FOA described herein, or EERE may not issue a FOA at all. No applications will be accepted through this notice. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled "Fiscal Year 2017 Vehicle Technologies Office Batteries and Electrification to Enable Extreme Fast Charging Funding Opportunity Announcement".

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin formulating ideas and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to the EERE Exchange website in the October 2017 timeframe.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Solar Energy Technology Office (SETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Advanced Power Electronics Design for Solar Applications”.

This FOA accelerates cost reductions for solar energy power electronics in order to support the SunShot 2030 goals for cost of solar electricity (i.e., 3 cents/kWh for utility-scale solar) and enable high solar energy penetration on the electric grid. The FOA is intended to primarily support reductions in the lifetime costs of solar inverters/converters for residential, commercial, and utility scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems through holistic designs that utilize advanced components, innovative topologies and packaging, advanced control schemes, and novel smart grid applications. The FOA is also intended to support innovative multi-purpose power electronics systems that add modular applications for enhancing solar PV customer and/or grid services.

It is anticipated that the FOA may include the following Topic Areas:

Topic Area 1 - This Topic Area targets research and development of solar PV inverter/converter designs that reduce solar PV lifetime costs towards SunShot’s 2030 cost goals.

Topic Area 2 - This Topic Area targets research and development of modular, multi-purpose power electronics that achieve lower lifetime costs by enabling value-added grid and/or customer-owned solar energy solutions.

Please access the complete Notice of Intent under the "Documents" heading below.

This is a Notice of Intent (NOI) only. EERE may issue a FOA as described, may issue a FOA that is significantly different from the FOA described herein, or EERE may not issue a FOA at all. No applications will be accepted through this notice. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent.

Through this RFI, Department of Energy (DOE) is soliciting information on next-generation (Gen 3) CSP technology.

The DOE launched the SunShot Initiative in 2011 with the goal of making solar electricity cost-competitive with conventionally generated electricity by 2020. The CSP SunShot Program set aggressive targets to achieve lower component costs and higher system efficiencies. Over the course of 5 years, the program’s portfolio of research has developed sub-system technologies potentially capable of efficient operation at higher temperatures, and hold promise to be reliable and cost effective. Yet there has not yet been shown to be a combination of integrated sub-systems that is without at least one significant technical, economic, or reliability risk. To advance next-generation (Gen 3) CSP technology, the DOE SunShot CSP Program asserts that an integrated system of sub-systems and components must be developed to investigate operational uncertainties at a multi-megawatt scale.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Extending Industrial Assessment Centers to Underserved Areas (DE-FOA-0001704).”

This FOA supports EERE AMO technical assistance activities. 

As background, the goal of the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program is twofold: first, to assist small and medium-sized manufacturers currently defined as having gross annual sales below $100 million, fewer than 500 employees, and annual energy bills between $100,000 and $2.5 million, to increase their energy efficiency, productivity, sustainability and competitiveness; and second, to help address a growing shortage of energy engineering professionals with applied energy efficiency-related skills.

The goal of Extending IACs to Underserved Areas is to encourage a broader and more diverse Applicant pool to serve as Extension IACs, and in so doing, further expand the geographic reach of the IAC program to areas that are less likely to be adequately serviced because of their distance from the 28 IACs that were selected in the summer of 2016. Eligible minority-serving institutions are encouraged to apply as Extension IACs.

Please access the complete Notice of Intent under the "Documents" heading below.

This NOI is issued so that interested parties are aware of EERE’s intention to issue a FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this NOI. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in January 2017.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled Industrial Assessment Centers Technical Field Manager (DE-FOA-0001679).

This FOA supports EERE AMO technical assistance activities.

As background, the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program is a resource conservation and workforce development initiative of AMO based in the engineering departments of universities nationwide. IACs conduct assessments and provide site-specific recommendations to small manufacturers on opportunities to improve productivity, reduce waste, and save energy. The program also provides engineering students with invaluable hands-on experience in energy engineering and energy management.

Through the FOA referenced above, EERE intends to fund the activities for an IAC Technical Field Manager. The IAC Technical Field Manager plays a critical role in the IAC program. The Technical Field Manager is a liaison between the AMO Technology Manager and the individual IACs, provides technical assistance and outreach to individual centers, and is the principle mechanism for ensuring the 28 individual IACs and their associated satellite centers perform at the highest possible level and that their activities support the achievement of AMO goals. The Technical Field Manager’s core responsibilities include the following:

• Providing technical assistance for quality control of Center operations, assessments, and outreach activities;
• Providing technical reviews and feedback on all of the IAC assessment reports;
• Integrating DOE priorities around practices and technologies into IAC operations;
• Providing training and technical assistance to the IAC staff and students and external stakeholders;
• Maintaining and upgrading the IAC websites and databases;
• Developing technical and informational resources for IAC clients and small and medium-sized manufacturers nationwide;
• Advancing the deployment of an accredited energy efficiency engineering degree; and
• Extending IAC program impacts beyond manufacturers and students immediately engaged by the Centers.

Through this announcement, DOE is seeking detailed applications for a Technical Field Manager who will provide these core activities, as well as respond to new program innovations and priorities from DOE. Examples of the Technical Field Manager’s potential new or expanded activities include:

• Training IACs on cybersecurity improvements, water sector assessments, energy management systems and smart manufacturing;
• Coordinating IAC student and alumni activities, including social media, to highlight career achievements;
• Moving to online reporting for assessments;
• Developing readily accessible resources around critical energy areas relevant to small and medium manufacturers, especially those not receiving IAC assessments; and
• Developing online best practice resources for industrial sector-specific energy saving and productivity improvements.

EERE envisions awarding one financial assistance award in the form of a cooperative agreement. The estimated period of performance for the award will be five years.

This NOI is issued so that interested parties are aware of EERE’s intention to issue a FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

Please access the complete Notice of Intent under the "Documents" heading below.

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this NOI. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in December 2016.

The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE Exchange website. A User Guide for the EERE Exchange can be found on the EERE website http://eere.energy.gov/financing/exchangeExchange/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system.

The purpose of this Notice of Intent is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy intends to issue, on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement, number DE-FOA-0001629 entitled "FY 2017 Vehicle Technologies Program Wide Funding Opportunity Announcement".

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to the EERE Exchange website in the December 2016 timeframe.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Technology-to-Market (T2M) team is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) DE-FOA-0001669. The purpose of this RFI is to gain public input on how T2M can best facilitate a more efficient clean energy innovation ecosystem in the U.S. by leveraging prior initiatives. T2M is looking to understand unaddressed challenges faced by early-stage clean energy start-ups and investors (and other capital providers) and industry partners that can help facilitate the transition of new technologies into the marketplace. The information being sought under this RFI is intended to assist EERE in further defining the scope and priorities of its initiatives by capitalizing on prior year investments to strengthen the U.S. Energy innovation ecosystem. Descriptions of current T2M efforts can be found at http://energy.gov/eere/technology-to-market/technology-market-program.

Background

The conventional technology-to-market pathway from invention to market entry has proven to be challenging for disruptive non-software clean energy technologies. Specific challenges include high capital needs, long development times, the need to integrate into complex systems and supply chains, the need to work with established industry in a commodity market, and the need to operate within a shifting regulatory environment.

In this complex landscape where innovation pathways encounter many market barriers, it is critical for the U.S. to build a more efficient and interconnected innovation ecosystem in order to transition to a clean energy economy. For the purpose of this RFI, we define the innovation ecosystem as the set of stakeholders (e.g. universities, business and industry, entrepreneurs and start-ups, labs and facilities, and capital providers) that can collectively enable the commercialization of clean energy technologies.

This RFI from EERE’s Office of Strategic Programs (OSP) T2M program seeks to obtain information from the broad innovation community on challenges that start-up companies face in launching and scaling their products and businesses, and understand the interventions in the clean energy innovation ecosystem that could address these challenges.

In February 2016, the Clean Energy Investment Center (CEIC) within DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) issued a RFI on how to utilize DOE’s considerable resources and expertise to support the investor community. The questions posed in that RFI primarily addressed specific services and tools that CEIC could develop to maximize the value of DOE engagement with the investment community and support clean energy investment decision making by the public. In response to stakeholder input from that RFI, CEIC has initiated several efforts to serve the investment community, including the Laboratory-Investor Knowledge Series (LINKS), a forum for public-private discussion of the challenges and opportunities around clean energy investment, and a Lab Partnering Service to connect investors with subject matter experts at the DOE national labs. Descriptions of current OTT efforts can be found at http://energy.gov/technologytransitions/services.

This RFI is intended to build upon DOE initiatives already underway to strengthen the clean energy innovation ecosystem in the U.S.

Please see the full RFI document in the "DOCUMENTS" section below. Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to T2M@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on November 14, 2016.

This notice is issued so that interested parties are aware of the EERE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this notice is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE eXCHANGE in December 2016.

The planned FOA supports improvements in module design as well as approaches to reduce installation and interconnection time, which represent important development avenues for reducing the cost of PV electricity and energizing the future growth of the U.S. PV industry. This funding opportunity encourages project teams to optimize the completed product by considering the holistic module and system architecture rather than focusing on individual components.

Applicant eligibility is anticipated to follow the same criteria as provided in the previous PVRD funding opportunity, which was released in September, 2015. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and Government-Owned Government Operated institutions (GOGOs) are not expected to be eligible to apply as primary applicants, but may be included as sub-recipients on proposals to this funding opportunity. Comprehensive details on eligibility will be released in the funding opportunity announcement.

The purpose of this Notice is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Solar Energy Technologies Office on behalf of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), intends to issue a FOA titled, Solar Forecasting II. NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange October 2016.

Through this FOA the program plans to support three key aspects of solar forecasting as a critical enabler of higher penetration of solar power in the electric grid: the improvement of solar forecasting skill, especially during challenging conditions, such as partly cloudy weather and large ramps; the integration of solar power forecasting with existing grid management systems, especially through probabilistic methodologies; and the setup of a common test framework that can be used to validate solar irradiance and power forecast models. The anticipated federal funding for this FOA is up to $10M. The applicants will be required to contribute 20% cost share to the projects. It is anticipated that each award size will be in the range of $500k to $3M and will be completed within fifteen months to three years.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “SunShot Technology to Market: Incubator Round 12, SolarMat Round 5”.

This FOA will enable the widespread market penetration of highly impactful solar technologies and solutions through technology research, development, and demonstration to overcome technical, institutional and market challenges. The FOA is divided into 6 Tiers that are based on the technology type, hardware or software, as well as its stage in the development cycle, e.g. prototype refinement, manufacturing tooling, beta testing, etc. The total federal funding will be approximately $30M with a 20% to 50% awardee cost share required depending on the project Tier. Projects are expected to be funded with a maximum award level of $500,000 to $5M depending on project Tier. In addition to achieving rigorous technical milestones, awardees are expected to deliver on business development and commercial metrics that de-risk the technology/solution and enable its progression to the next phase of commercial development. Successful awardees will be well positioned for investment from the private sector and have a path to market impact.

This is a Notice of Intent (NOI) only. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or EERE may not issue a FOA at all.

The Department of Energy (DOE) funds university-led traineeship programs that strategically address workforce training needs in key technical focus areas.The following objectives guide DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office’s (AMO) traineeship efforts:

In July 2015, EERE released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to address emerging needs in graduate training enabling preparedness for the field of advanced Power Electronics Engineering careers beyond those in academia. As a result, EERE made two competitively-selected awards supporting five-year graduate-level programs in Power Electronics Engineering, leveraging existing DOE assets including the wide band gap National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) Institute, PowerAmerica.

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to future EERE-funded and AMO-funded graduate-level Traineeships. This RFI is not a FOA; therefore, DOE is not accepting applications at this time. All responses to this RFI must be provided as an attachment (in Microsoft Word format) to an e-mail message addressed to AMOTraineeship@ee.doe.gov. Responses must be received no later than 5:00pm (ET) on November 10^th, 2016. The full content of the RFI can be found below.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Reducing EMbodied-energy And Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing”.

This FOA supports the establishment of a Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Reducing EMbodied-energy And Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing. This Institute will enable the development and widespread deployment of key industrial platform technologies that will dramatically reduce life-cycle energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with industrial-scale materials production and processing through the development of technologies for reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing of materials. Solving this enormous and currently unmet challenge could significantly reduce U.S. primary energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions in the industrial sector, which represents a particularly challenging sector to decarbonize, and improve U.S. manufacturing competiveness in the process. Analysis shows that the development and deployment of cost effective new technologies to enable significant reductions in the life-cycle embodied energy and carbon emissions for materials production in the US economy relative to the use of primary feedstocks could offer energy savings on the order of 1.6 quadrillion BTU (quads) annually across four classes of waste materials - metals, fibers, polymers, and e-waste.

The resulting Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute is expected to be a Department of Energy supported Institute participating in the interagency National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) program.

This NOI is issued so that interested parties are aware of EERE’s intention to issue a FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

Please access the complete Notice of Intent under the "Documents" heading below.

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this NOI. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in June 2016.

The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE Exchange website. A User Guide for the EERE Exchange can be found on the EERE website http://eere.energy.gov/financing/exchangeExchange/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system.

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to the EERE Exchange website in the June 2016 timeframe.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Modular Chemical Process Intensification”.

This FOA supports the establishment of a Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute on Modular Chemical Process Intensification. Modular chemical process intensification represents an emerging opportunity for processing industries in the U.S. manufacturing sector to improve energy efficiency, reduce feedstock waste, increase scalability and improve productivity by merging and integrating separate unit processes (mixing, reactions, separation) into single modular hardware elements of reduced size, higher efficiency and scalability.

This NOI is issued so that interested parties are aware of EERE’s intention to issue a FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

Please access the complete Notice of Intent under the "Documents" heading below.

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this NOI. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in May 2016.

The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE Exchange website. A User Guide for the EERE Exchange can be found on the EERE website http://eere.energy.gov/financing/exchangeExchange/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Industrial Assessment Centers" (DE-FOA-0001513).

This FOA supports EERE AMO technical assistance activities. The goal of the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program is twofold: first, to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), currently defined as having gross annual sales below $100 million, fewer than 500 employees, and annual energy bills between $100,000 and $2.5 million, to increase their energy efficiency, productivity, sustainability and competitiveness; and second, to help address a growing shortage of engineering professionals with applied energy-related skills.

Prospective IACs can demonstrate their capabilities and describe their approach to serve small and medium-sized manufacturers by analyzing the operating characteristics, productivity, and energy, water and waste usage of manufacturing facilities; identifying, quantifying, and recommending specific opportunities to improve energy and water efficiency, reduce waste, and improve productivity; including potential enhancements to cyber security and related information technologies; and reporting the findings to the facility, together with estimates of the energy savings opportunities, implementation costs, and payback periods.

Each IAC will provide extensive training for undergraduate and graduate engineering students in industrial processes, energy assessment procedures, and energy management systems. IAC Applicants should define how they will maximize the student experience; increase student technical knowledge and business sense; and develop their understanding of key industrial concepts, including industrial supply chains, sustainability issues, and management systems.

This NOI is issued so that interested parties are aware of EERE’s intention to issue a FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

Please access the complete Notice of Intent under the "Documents" heading below.

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this NOI. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in March 2016.

The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE Exchange website. A User Guide for the EERE Exchange can be found on the EERE website http://eere.energy.gov/financing/exchangeExchange/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Strategic Programs Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP)”. As part of the Cities-LEAP project, EERE’s Office of Strategic Programs, through its Policy and Analysis and Technology-to-Market Teams, intends to solicit applications to advance data-driven decision-making by local governments in support of their climate and energy goals. This anticipated funding opportunity is intended for local and tribal governments as prime applicants and strongly encourages partnerships between local and tribal governments and entities such as academic institutions, technology companies, utilities, regional planning bodies, and non-governmental organizations to develop and pilot data-driven decision frameworks that strengthen the analytical underpinning of energy-impacting actions by local governments across the United States.

The purpose of this Notice is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Office of Strategic Programs, on behalf of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), intends to issue a FOA titled, “Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP)”. NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in March 2016.

The purpose of this Notice of Intent (NOI) is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), on behalf of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), intends to issue a FOA titled "Next Generation of Electric Machines: Enabling Technologies" (DE-FOA-0001467).

This NOI is issued so that interested parties are aware of EERE’s intention to issue a FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

Please access the complete Notice of Intent under the "Documents" heading below.

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this NOI. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in March 2016.

The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE Exchange website. A User Guide for the EERE Exchange can be found on the EERE website http://eere.energy.gov/financing/exchangeExchange/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system.

The purpose of this Notice of Intent is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy intends to issue, on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement, number DE-FOA-0001447 entitled Advanced Systems Level Technology Development, Integration and Demonstration for Efficient Class 8 Trucks (SuperTruck II).

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to the EERE Exchange website in the March 2016 timeframe.

The purpose of this Notice of Intent (NOI) is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, intends to issue, on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), number DE-FOA-0001384 entitled "Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Vehicle Technologies Program Wide Funding Opportunity Announcement."

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to the EERE Exchange website in the January 2016 timeframe.
 

The purpose of this announcement is to initiate a Notice of Intent to issue Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number DE-FOA-0001415 entitled State Energy Program 2016 Competitive Awards. NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in 2016.

**The deadline for submissions to this RFI has been extended to November 30, 2015.**

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on what is being called the PV Lifetime Project. EERE seeks to expand the data set available to the public, with measurements taken over shorter intervals and using repeatable test methods. The data is expected to enable an increase in the accuracy and precision of degradation profiles calculated for representative PV modules and systems. 

The objectives of the PV Lifetime Project are:
1. Determine and communicate module differentiation with respect to service lifetime.
2. Determine and communicate degradation profiles; and their uncertainty.

EERE is specifically interested in information on results that better inform calculations of the return on investment of existing and future PV installations. This is solely a request for information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). EERE is not accepting applications.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to PVReliability@EE.Doe.Gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on November 30, 2015. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email.

The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing a new initiative to significantly accelerate adoption of sustainable clean and energy efficiency strategies in remote rural Alaskan communities. For the purposes of this initiative, ”remote or rural areas” include communities with a population of 5,500 or less that are not connected by an all-weather road or rail to Anchorage or Fairbanks, or with a population of 1,500 or less that are connected by road or rail to Anchorage or Fairbanks. Through the proposed competitive process, the Remote Alaskan Communities Energy Efficiency Competition is being designed to empower Alaskan communities to develop solutions for effectively advancing the use of reliable, affordable, and energy efficient solutions that are applicable throughout rural communities in Alaska and potentially in other Arctic regions. It is anticipated that DOE may have up to $4 million in technical assistance and other support through this initiative. The RFI will gather input from Alaskan stakeholders as well as others to help shape the design of the competition and ensure the goals and activities of the initiative are relevant to remote rural Alaskan communities.

The purpose of this RFI is to gather feedback from stakeholders prior to DOE potentially issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). This RFI is not a FOA; therefore, DOE is not accepting applications at this time. All responses to this RFI must be provided as an attachment (in Microsoft Word format) electronically to: AlaskaCompetition@hq.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm ET on October 30, 2015.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Solar Energy Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Photovoltaics Research and Development (PVRD)." EERE plans to issue the FOA on or about September 8th, 2015 via the EERE Exchange website (https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/). All of the information contained in this Notice is subject to change. EERE will not respond to questions concerning this Notice. Once the FOA has been released, EERE will provide an avenue for potential Applicants to submit questions.

This is a Notice of Intent (NOI) only. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or EERE may not issue a FOA at all.

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gauge the issues and opportunities that the research and industrial communities find most important in reducing the levelized cost of energy associated with photovoltaic power generation.

Manufacturing costs associated with photovoltaic module production have decreased dramatically over the past decade, but further improvements are still needed. Cell and module developments that maximize efficiency, service lifetime, and total energy output while minimizing installation material and labor costs are critical to the future of commercial photovoltaic technologies. Continued innovation in these areas will play a vital role in achieving a levelized cost of energy that is low enough to drive widespread deployment for decades to come. This is solely a request for information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). EERE is not accepting applications.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to PVRD@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on July 15th, 2015. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) seeks to understand how local governments obtain and use information about energy consumption in their communities and within their government operations.

Consistent with existing DOE and Administration initiatives to work with local governments such as the Better Buildings Challenge, Clean Cities Coalition, and Climate Action Champions, EERE seeks to continue to help cities make important progress in meeting their climate and energy goals. The Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP) project is investigating complementary ways to support cities (or other local governments) in their efforts to include energy analysis and data into their strategic decision-making.

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather feedback from stakeholders prior to DOE potentially issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). This RFI is not a FOA; therefore, DOE is not accepting applications at this time. All responses to this RFI must be provided as an attachment (in Microsoft Word format) to an e-mail message addressed to Cities.LEAP@ee.doe.gov. Responses must be received no later than 5:00 PM EDT on May 29, 2015. 

In order to reduce solar transaction costs (soft costs) and increase transparency and efficient pricing, the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative is exploring best strategies to support, expand, and streamline competitive and non-competitive efforts in the solar industry related to collecting, securing, managing, exchanging, and monetizing solar datasets, across the value chain in the U.S. from project origination to grid integration, operations, and decommissioning. Improved data availability reduces informational asymmetries, accelerates the maturity of solar related products and services, and increases solar deployment. Areas of key interest center on technical, economic, administrative, and legal barriers and opportunities to reduce costs of capital, lower operational risks, protect consumers, and increase efficient market activities.

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather feedback from stakeholders prior to DOE potentially issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). This RFI is not a FOA; therefore, DOE is not accepting applications at this time. All responses to this RFI must be provided as an attachment to an email message addressed to solardata@ee.doe.gov. Responses must be received no later than 5:00 PM EDT on April 10, 2015. The full content of this RFI can be found on the EERE Exchange website at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov.

The purpose of this Notice is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), on behalf of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), intends to issue a FOA titled "Next Generation of Electric Machines" (DE-FOA-0001208).

This Notice is issued so that interested parties are aware of the EERE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this Notice is subject to change. EERE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE eXCHANGE in February 2015.

The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE eXCHANGE website. A User Guide for the EERE eXCHANGE can be found on the EERE website http://eere.energy.gov/financing/exchangeExchange/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system.

The purpose of this Notice of Intent is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Technology-to-Market Team in the Office of Strategic Programs, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Cleantech University Prize (Cleantech UP)”, Number DE-FOA-0001271. The full Notice of Intent document is posted in the "FOA Documents" section below.

The Cleantech UP program seeks to catalyze clean energy start-up formation on college campuses, support novel training and educational opportunities that equip the next generation of energy entrepreneurs and innovators across the country, establish a national-level training program and competition for America’s top clean energy student entrepreneurs, and create a sustained and diverse community to support student entrepreneurs.The mission of EERE’s Technology-to-Market Team is to aid EERE technology offices and American energy innovation stakeholders in addressing the technological and financial barriers to bring new intellectual property to market.  To advance this mission, the Technology-to-Market Sub-Program supports a variety of commercialization and entrepreneurship activities in partnership with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, universities, businesses, and nonprofit organizations around the country.  Existing activities include the DOE National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition (DOE NCEBPC), National Incubator Initiative for Clean Energy, Lab-Corps, and Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Programs (SBIR/STTR); past activities include the Innovation Ecosystem Development Initiative, i6 Green Challenge, Technology Commercialization Fund, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, and other initiatives. 

NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. DOE plans to issue the FOA around mid-February 2015. The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE eXCHANGE website. A User Guide for EERE eXCHANGE can be found on the EERE website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled, “SunShot Incubator Round 10, SolarMat Round 3, SunPath Round 2”.

This FOA will enable the widespread market penetration of highly impactful solar technologies and solutions through technology research, development, and demonstration to overcome technical, institutional and market challenges.  Historically, annual funding opportunities have been separated by stage of technology development (Incubator, SolarMat, and SUNPATH). In the interest of optimizing the application and selection process, these funding opportunities have been combined into a single FOA, with the goal of bringing disruptive innovation to the solar industry in the near term that will take root in the U.S.  The total federal funding will be approximately $45M with a 20% to 50% awardee cost share required depending on the project Tier.  Projects are expected to be funded with a maximum award level of $500,000 to $10M depending on project Tier. This FOA has 5 Tiers based on the type of product (hardware or non-hardware) and product maturity.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “State Energy Program 2015 Competitive Awards”.  NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE.  Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA.  It is anticipated that this FOA will be posted to EERE Exchange in 2015.  Please do not respond or submit questions in response to this Notice of Intent.

THIS  REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IS NOT A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA); THEREFORE, DOE IS NOT ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS. 

EERE intends to issue, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies, Fiscal Year 2015 (AFFECT 2015).”  This RFI seeks input from interested parties and stakeholders regarding the subject of the anticipated FOA and related details.  If the FOA is issued, it will likely provide grants to Federal agencies for renewable energy projects that are incorporated into a privately financed performance contract, such as an Energy Savings Performance Contract or Utility Energy Service Contract, or as part of a renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).  Applications for renewable energy projects that are financed through appropriations will also be considered.  A key merit review criterion will likely be how much private and/or agency funds are leveraged against the FEMP AFFECT grant funding. Highly leveraging outside funds through performance contracting is important, because it will lead to projects of greater impact. If the FOA is issued, it will be released at some point in Fiscal Year 2015, which began October 1, 2014 and ends September 30, 2015.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. Responses to the RFI will be treated as informational only and will not be viewed as a binding commitment for the respondent to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed.

DESCRIPTION: The Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) seeks information on mid-Technology Readiness Level (TRL) research and development (R&D) needs, market challenges, supply chain challenges and shared facility needs in addressing advanced manufacturing development challenges impacting clean energy manufacturing.  AMO is particularly interested in the challenges associated with advanced manufacturing technology which might be overcome by pre-competitive collaborations conducted via a Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute. AMO recently completed a broad RFI on this topic area. The intent of this RFI is to narrow the focus of a possible Clean Energy Manufacturing Institute and invite discussion on a set of the following specific focus areas. The Topical/Technical Focus Areas under consideration in this RFI are:

•              Advanced Materials Manufacturing (AMM)

•              Advanced Sensing, Control, and Platforms for Manufacturing (ASCPM)

•              High-Efficiency Modular Chemical Processes (HEMCP)

•              High Value Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing (R2R)

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on specific issues and topics related to the establishment of Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institutes through specific Topical/Technical Focus Areas described herein.  AMO seeks information through this RFI to understand cross-cutting as well as specific manufacturing challenges that if addressed could provide the underlying motivation for the formation of a manufacturing innovation institute, consistent with the mission of the Department of Energy (DOE), the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and AMO.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to AMOGolden@ee.doe.gov  with a subject line “Response to RFI” no later than 5:00pm (EDT) on October 3, 2014. Any late responses will not be reviewed.  Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word document (.docx or .doc) of no more than 8 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins as an attachment to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Submission of existing commercial documentation and product literature is NOT an acceptable response. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. Responses to the RFI will be treated as informational only and will not be viewed as a binding commitment for the respondent to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed. 

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to market opportunities to enhance and expand upon certain AMO system software tools and related assets. At the present time these software tool resources/assets are primarily maintained and managed by the U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO). This RFI seeks information to assist with the transition of these resources to be primarily or solely managed by a third party (or parties). AMO is particularly interested in business strategies to ensure:

•             The resource content is maintained, improved and enhanced

•             The resources remain available to the industrial sector

•             The current and future market needs for these system assets are addressed

•             Adaptation to rapidly changing and progressing electronic and IT infrastructure is embraced and addressed

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to AMOTools@go.doe.gov  with a subject line “Response to RFI” no later than 5:00pm (EDT) on September 30, 2014.   Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word document (.docx or .doc) of no more than 8 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins as an attachment to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, SunShot Initiative (SunShot) is proud to announce the Catalyst Program.  Catalyst is a series of contests designed to incentivize the public to address time-sensitive market problems in the solar industry.  For more information on the Catalyst Program and for the official rules please visit http://catalyst.energy.gov. 

Questions regarding the Catalyst competition can