EERE Funding Opportunity Announcements

Please see the full RFI document in the Documents section below.

This RFI seeks input from biofuels producers and technology developers about their readiness to scale process technologies to pilot- and demonstration-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), renewable diesel and renewable marine fuels. This information is necessary for DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) to chart the potential growth of domestic renewable fuels production by 2030 and to understand the barriers in scaling renewable fuel production pathways. This RFI also seeks information on how DOE can best assist biofuels production stakeholders in their research and development (R&D) and scaling up of their technologies through demonstration scale.

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to the scale-up of renewable fuel production technologies. EERE is specifically interested in information about:

Category 1 - Biofuel Pathway Scale-up Forecasts

Category 2 - Barriers to Scale-up of SAF, Marine, and Renewable Diesel Technologies

Category 3 - Leveraging First Generation Ethanol and Other Incumbent Industries

Category 4 - BETO Scale-up of Biotechnologies Strategy

Category 5 - Leveraging National Laboratory Process Development Units (PDU) to Scale-up Renewable Fuels

Category 6 - Feedstock Production & Supply

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 Biofuels_FY22_RFI@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on January 31, 2022. 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 10 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

In addition to providing written responses to this RFI, respondents may request a 30-minute individual discussion with a BETO staff member regarding the content of their written responses to the RFI questions. Similarly, if a respondent is unable to submit written responses, or would otherwise prefer to do so, he/she may request a 30-minute individual discussion with a BETO staff member to verbally provide responses to the RFI questions. If a respondent wishes to participate in an individual discussion for either of these reasons, please submit your request to Biofuels_FY22_RFI@ee.doe.gov and you will be contacted by a BETO staff member to schedule a time for the discussion.

Please see the full RFI document in the Documents section below.

Modification 0001:

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) was created in 1976 with the primary purpose to increase the energy efficiency of dwellings owned or occupied by low-income persons, reduce their total residential energy expenditures, and improve their health and safety, especially low-income persons who are particularly vulnerable such as the elderly, the disabled, families with children, high residential energy users and households with a high energy burden.[1] A network of 57 Grantees and 700 local organizations (Subgrantees) working with private contractors delivers WAP services to eligible residents in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Indian lands of the Federally recognized tribes, and five U.S. Territories.

Within Public Law 116-260, signed December 27, 2020, Congress directed the DOE to establish a competitive program for “WAP Enhancement and Innovation” (E&I). Financial assistance is available to state, local, tribal and non-profit organizations[2]. A total of $18.6 million is available from the FY 2021 appropriation with a maximum award amount of $2 million. Through partnerships and leveraging of the DOE WAP and other funding sources, these awards will enable deep energy retrofits of low-income housing[3] in four topic areas: 1) place-based initiatives; 2) multifamily housing; 3) single family and manufactured housing; 4) workforce development. Applicants are encouraged to use awarded E&I funds in conjunction with DOE WAP formula awards and other funding sources to deploy demonstration projects that have potential to be scaled nationally, enhance the benefits realized by underserved communities, and ensure an equitable transition to a clean-energy economy.[4]

Building a clean-energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will advance the Biden Administration’s goals to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050”¹ to the benefit of all Americans. DOE is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of disadvantaged communities.

The activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of energy efficiency retrofits and clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA will support the goals of carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and net zero GHG emissions by 2050 while also supporting quality jobs and economic growth by:

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[1] Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” January 27, 2021.

[2] 42 U.S.C. 6864d(b)

[3] See 10 CFR 440.3 for the definition of low-income. Each Grantee defines low income for their service territory in the annual Weatherization Grant Application (Master File Section V.1 Eligibility).

[4] 42 USC 6864d.(e)(4)

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Questions regarding the FOA must be submitted to WeatherizationFOA@ee.doe.gov

Answers to the questions will be posted to an excel spreadsheet found in the announcement "Documents" section of the FOA posting.

12/1/2021 UPDATE:  The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s intent to issue a "Regional Clean Hydrogen Analysis” Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) has been canceled pending the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58, November 15, 2021). Section 813 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to support the development of at least 4 regional clean hydrogen hubs and requires DOE to solicit proposals for regional clean hydrogen hubs not later than 180 days after the date of the Act’s enactment.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), and in coordination across DOE offices, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled "Regional Clean Hydrogen Analysis.” 

HFTO’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Analysis FOA would solicit analysis projects to identify and characterize the value proposition of specific regional clean hydrogen deployments that could be successfully implemented over the coming years. Each analysis project solicited in this FOA would be focused on a single potential clean hydrogen deployment that includes production, delivery, storage, and end use, in a specific region (State or several adjacent States) within the United States. Each proposal would study potential hydrogen producers, hydrogen consumers, and the necessary connective hydrogen infrastructure, all located in close proximity, to enable deployment with substantial engagement of local and regional stakeholders. The selected projects will quantify key metrics including decarbonization potential, system cost, revenue potential, and metrics for environmental justice, such as potential for regional economic growth, job creation, reduction in criteria pollutant emissions, and creation of educational and workforce development opportunities. Higher emissions reductions will be strongly encouraged. This FOA would continue HFTO’s ongoing analysis to inform future clean hydrogen deployments that enable innovations related to technology scale-up and manufacturing, as well as economies of scale.

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 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. 

12/1/2021 UPDATE:  The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s intent to issue a "Regional Clean Hydrogen Analysis” Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) has been canceled pending the implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58, November 15, 2021). Section 813 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requires the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to support the development of at least 4 regional clean hydrogen hubs and requires DOE to solicit proposals for regional clean hydrogen hubs not later than 180 days after the date of the Act’s enactment.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Scale-Up of Integrated Biorefineries.”

The FOA will support the highest priority research and development (R&D) areas identified for funding in fiscal year 2022 (FY22) by BETO within biofuel and bioproduct technologies. The FOA will cover two BETO Programs: Advanced Algal Systems and Systems Development and Integration. All topic areas support the White House’s priority for advancing the domestic bioeconomy and support BETO’s Program Goal to achieve $2.50/gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) Minimum Fuel Selling Price (MSFP) and at least a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (vs. petroleum baseline) by 2030.

The R&D activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving innovations that lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies. Specifically, this FOA will support high-impact R&D focusing on the production of low-GHG fuels for the aviation industry, the long-haul trucking sector, and marine industries by soliciting proposals to scale-up promising technologies. The FOA intends to provide a continuation of R&D priorities and strategies identified under BETO’s FY21 Scale-up and Conversion FOA (DE-FOA-0002396).

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 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.

EERE plans to issue the FOA in or about December 2021 via the EERE Exchange website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/. If Applicants wish to receive official notifications and information from EERE regarding this FOA, they should register in EERE Exchange. When the FOA is released, applications will be accepted only through EERE Exchange.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) is requesting information on efficiency, stability and replicability performance targets for perovskite photovoltaic devices that could be utilized to demonstrate technical and commercial readiness for future funding programs.

This Request for Information (RFI) is intended to inform the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) on the overall technical research, development, and demonstration opportunities in solar manufacturing and hardware product commercialization. SETO is seeking specific feedback on:

• Technical areas with opportunities to invest in innovative research and development (R&D) as well as research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects that enable solar to continue to drive down costs, while developing next-generation solar technologies, supporting the scalability of solar as deployment increases across the country, and boosting American solar manufacturing;
• Removal of the Concept Paper stage from the funding opportunity process to better align it with the needs of a fast-moving industry and community and in an effort to streamline the application process and reduce the time from application deadline to selection notification; and
• Ways to better engage and support partnerships between institutions representing diverse entities such as, but not limited to, Tribal communities; minority-serving institutions (MSI); minority business enterprises; minority-, woman-, and veteran-owned businesses[1]; entities located in an underserved community or through linkages with Opportunity Zones.

[1] Opportunity Zones were added to the Internal Revenue Code by section 13823 of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, codified at 26 U.S.C. 1400Z-1. The list of designated Qualified Opportunity Zones can be found in IRS Notices 2018-48 (PDF) and 2019-42 (PDF). Further, a visual map of the census tracts designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones may also be found at Opportunity Zones Resources. Also see, frequently asked questions about Qualified Opportunity Zones.  

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) seeks information to help it refine the scope and structure of its commercialization programs. These programs are intended to address specific challenges in the commercialization process as ideas move across the research, development, demonstration and deployment (RDD&D) continuum.

OTT would like to learn:

• Your feedback on its programs
• Commercialization challenges that its programs do not currently address
• Ideas for programs that are applicable to a variety of technologies
• Ways to better promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in all programs

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to ott.rfi@hq.doe.gov no later than 3:00pm ET on January 19, 2022.

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This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. OTT will not pay for information provided under this RFI and no project will be supported as a result of this RFI. OTT is not accepting through this RFI 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.

Background:

Geothermal energy is a renewable and diverse solution for the United States—providing reliable and flexible electricity generation and delivering unique technology solutions to America’s heating and cooling demands. Geothermal resources can be found nationwide, are “always on,” and represent vast domestic energy potential; however, only a fraction of this potential has been realized due to technical and non-technical barriers that constrain industry growth. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Geothermal Technologies Office’s (GTO) recent GeoVision report concludes that with technology improvements, especially in areas relevant to enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), geothermal power generation could increase 26-fold from today, representing 60 gigawatts-electric (GWe) by 2050[1].

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) are engineered geothermal reservoirs, created where there is hot rock (175-300+°C), but little to no natural permeability and/or fluid saturation.  During EGS development, subsurface permeability is enhanced via safe, well-engineered stimulation processes that re-open pre-existing fractures, create new ones, or a combination of both.  These open conduits increase permeability and allow fluid to circulate throughout the rock. This fluid transports heat to the surface where electricity can be generated with current power generation technologies. 

In addition to geothermal wells that have been targeted for EGS development, the hydrocarbon[2] industry also has an opportunity to contribute to the development of geothermal resources nationwide through the use of wells for power or heat production. The adaptation of hydrocarbon reservoirs, which are traditionally located in sedimentary basins, to geothermal production and utilization would expand the sector’s geographic reach outside of the Western U.S. where natural geothermal systems reside. Many hydrocarbon fields enounter temperatures high enough for geothermal energy and heat production. This unused heat, combined with the wealth of data, knowledge, workforce, and infrastructure in place in support of these fields underscores the benefits of exploring their geothermal potential. While a comprehensive nationwide resource assessment that evaluates the potential of existing hydrocarbon wells for geothermal development does not yet exist, a number of studies have looked at geographic subsets of the sedimentary basins of the U.S., where most hydrocarbon exploration and development occurs. Blackwell et al. (2006) provided a conservative estimate of 100,000 EJ of thermal energy in basins nationwide deeper than 4km[3]. A more detailed study on a subset of 15 U.S. basins by Porro et al. (2012) reported 135,000 EJ including only basins in the western United States (not including the Gulf Coast region)[4]. Finally, a study by Zafer & Cutright (2014) estimate the thermal energy resource base for the state of Texas alone to be 166,000 EJ[5]. 

Purpose:

Through periodic funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), GTO partners with industry, academia, national laboratories, industry experts, etc. to increase the use of domestic geothermal energy across a range of resource types by improving technologies, reducing costs, and mitigating barriers. Within GTO, the EGS Program actively pursues research, development, and demonstration projects to facilitate technology validation and deployment, reduce cost, and improve performance of EGS. Specifically, the economic viability of EGS depends on developing and improving enabling technologies and a detailed understanding of rock mass behavior and permeability enhancement.  While achieving cost-competitive electricity generation from EGS is a long-term goal, in the near-term, research, development, and demonstration projects will move industry along the learning curve toward technological readiness.

Through the FY21 Wells of Opportunity (referred to as WOO going forward) FOA, GTO is soliciting geothermal and hydrocarbon well owners or operators with existing wells that are willing to partner with DOE to advance and test EGS technologies in-situ.  These wells could be “idle” or currently used for injection, production, and/or monitoring. Due to the criticality of the technology prototyping and methodology testing phase of research and development in the innovation pipeline, this FOA focuses on active field testing, where the Federal government takes on the associated cost and risks. 

• Topic Area 1 – Amplify (EGS Near-Field RD&D):  This field validation effort will culminate in new power production, adding to the commercial viability of existing geothermal fields. The goal of Amplify is to illustrate that near-field and in-field EGS can be successfully deployed now as a result of recent technology advancements and that low permeability/underproductive wells near and in existing hydrothermal fields can be turned into valuable assets using EGS techniques.

• Topic Area 2 – ReAmplify  (Geothermal production from hydrocarbon wells): The objective of this initiative is to establish the commercial viability of geothermal energy production from existing hydrocarbon fields. The goal of ReAmplify is to establish a pilot program where the production of geothermal heat from existing hydrocarbon fields can be demonstrated for electricity production or direct use applications.

Building a clean energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This FOA will advance the Biden Administration’s goals to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050“^[6] to the benefit of all Americans. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of underserved communities. 

The R&D activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA focuses on critical aspects of reservoir management needed for widespread commercialization of EGS technologies which directly supports the Biden Administration’s goals for a clean energy future.  In addition, this FOA provides an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from the fossil fuel sector and facilitate clean geothermal energy/heat production from hydrocarbon wells.  

[1] The GeoVision Roadmap outlines a compilation of technical, economic, and institutional actions that the entire geothermal community including DOE, other government agencies, industry, and academia must address in order for geothermal technologies to play a larger role in the Nation’s energy mix.

[2] Hydrocarbon: An organic chemical compound of hydrogen and carbon in the gaseous, liquid, or solid phase. https://www.eia.gov/tools/glossary/index.php

[3] Blackwell, D., Negraru, P., and Richards, M., 2006. Assessment of the Enhanced Geothermal System Resource Base of the United States. Natural Resources Research, Vol. 15, No. 4, December 2006. DOI: 10.1007/s11053-007-9028-7.

[4] Porro, C., Esposito, A., Augustine, C., and Roberts, B., 2012. An Estimate of the Geothermal Energy Resource in the Major Sedimentary Basins in the United States. GRC Transactions, Vol. 36, 2012.

[5] Zafar, S. and Cutright, B., 2014. Texas’ geothermal resource base: A raster-integration method for estimating in-place geothermal energy resources using ArcGIS. Geothermics, Vol. 50, April 2014.

[6] Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” January 27, 2021.

Informational Webinar: 

Please access the information webinar at: https://doe.webex.com/doe/j.php?MTID=ma57725545051bda39fd560f48a740371

An informational webinar was held on October 13, 2021. A recording of the webinar is here: https://youtu.be/H7sP4nBg64k

A copy of the slides is found under DOCUMENTS below.

Modification 0002

The purposes of this modification are to clarify the definition of hydropower on page 4 and to update Section I.C. Applications Specifically Not of Interest. 
 

Modification 0001

The purpose of this modification is to correct the Replies to Reviewer Comments deadline as listed on the title page. 

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is issuing, on behalf of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) through its HydroWIRES Initiative, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled “Technology Innovation to Increase Hydropower Flexibility.” The FOA seeks next-generation technologies from manufacturers, equipment vendors, and research organizations to improve the flexible capabilities of the U.S. hydropower fleet. The development of technical solutions to improve hydropower flexibility – either by improving performance across various dimensions of unit-level flexibility, or by reducing potential negative impacts of flexible operations – can improve hydropower’s ability to integrate additional variable renewable resources and support power system decarbonization. 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) is requesting information on the current practices related to siting large-scale solar energy plants and how stakeholders evaluate the impacts these plants may have on the surrounding environment, especially on wildlife.

Information is sought on the solar thermochemical decarbonizing of difficult to decarbonize industries.  SETO is specifically interested in information on the research, planning, and execution challenges that must be overcome to deploy concentrating solar thermal heat energy (with or without concomitant electrification) into iron ore reduction and steel manufacture, cement production and ammonia synthesis.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) is requesting information on the possible areas of technical research that would enable utility-scale photovoltaic system service life of 50 years.

10/28/2021 Update: The deadline for responses to this RFI is extended until December 7, 2021

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) seeks comments on the testing facilities and capabilities that will be needed by technology developers, manufacturers, designers, construction contractors, owners, regulators, researchers, and other stakeholders to validate and advance emerging and future hydropower technology innovations.

To drive manufacturing innovation, spur job creation, and enhance manufacturing competitiveness, the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) supports applied research, development, and demonstration in crosscutting, platform technologies to decarbonize the industrial sector and promote the development and growth of a resilient manufacturing sector for multiple emerging clean energy fields.

Building a clean energy and equitable economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will advance the Biden Administration’s goal to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and to “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050“ to the benefit of all Americans. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of disadvantaged communities. 

The research and development (R&D) activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. This FOA will support activities to advance efficiency improvements and enhance manufacturing competitiveness through technological innovation by focusing on three main areas, as described below, with subtopics in each area: 

Topic Area 1: Manufacturing Process Innovation

Topic Area 1a: Efficiency Improvements to Drying Processes

Topic Area 1b: Advanced Tooling for Lightweight Automotive Components

Topic Area 1c: Sustainable Chemistry Practices in Manufacturing

Topic Area 2: Advanced Materials Manufacturing

Topic Area 2a: Materials for Harsh Service Conditions

Topic Area 2b: Development of Aluminum-Cerium (Al-Ce) Alloys and Processing to Enable Increased Energy Efficiency in Aerospace Applications

Topic Area 3: Energy Systems

Topic Area 3a: Structured Electrode Manufacturing for Lithium-ion Batteries

Lab Call is for (1) support of Combined Heat and Power Deployment Program and (2) development and support for AMO Education and Workforce Development Roadmap

MODIFICATION 0001: The purpose of this modification is to extend the deadline for responses to September 23, 2021.  

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) seeks stakeholder input to refine the scope of a potential new Clean Energy Manufacturing Institute. This Institute will focus on reducing the overall emissions of domestic manufacturing through carbon intensity improvements, moving the Industrial Sector towards the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. This request for information (RFI) is specifically focused on understanding the challenges, opportunities and benefits of industrial decarbonization associated with:

• Electrification of Industrial Process, including technologies for electrification of manufacturing process, materials for more effective/efficient electrification, scale-up and design for integration into manufacturing processes, and life cycle assessment tools and methodologies. 
• Decarbonization of Metals Manufacturing, including technical solutions in metallic manufacturing, improved alloy material performance and acceleration of adopting developed technologies.

This information will inform DOE’s consideration of a potential funding opportunity to establish DOE’s seventh Clean Energy Manufacturing Institute. Clean Energy Manufacturing Institutes are public-private partnerships that sponsor research and facilitate technology development in a given topic area. EERE is interested in responses from all stakeholders, including representatives of state and cities, academia, national laboratories, non-governmental organizations, interest groups, private sector, and more.

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.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to Decarb-Institute@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on September 23, 2021. 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 your answers by responding to a specific question or topic if applicable. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they wish.

Desirability, convenience, and cost are the three greatest barriers to deep energy building retrofits. The goal of this planned FOA is to fund research that enables faster renovation and construction of affordable, appealing, and energy efficient buildings. This FOA directly supports goals of a carbon-neutral building economy no later than 2050 by focusing on three specific topics areas in need of desirable, convenient and affordable solutions to transform the United States’ building stock. This FOA builds on BTO’s current Advanced Building Construction work: https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/advanced-building-construction-initiative.  Information about the latest ABC goals and strategic organization can be found in the factsheet: https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2021/03/f83/bto-abc-fact-sheet-030321.pdf 

The ABC Initiative uses a multi-pronged approach to address research, development, and market challenges with the goal of integrating highly efficient and low-carbon innovations into the construction industry’s broader modernization efforts. Through competitively awarded R&D projects and cutting-edge building technologies research at DOE’s national laboratories, and the establishment of an ABC Collaborative with key industry partnerships, workforce training, and other strategic activities, the ABC Initiative works to not only drive development of new technologies, practices and approaches but also ensure that these solutions are widely deployed in the market – thus helping the U.S. expand job opportunities, develop a stronger building infrastructure, improve energy affordability.

A key objective of the planned 2021 Advanced Building Construction FOA is to fund R&D that will benefit underserved communities by contributing to the following goals: 

• Highly energy-efficient buildings with low-carbon footprints and lower energy bills
• Faster renovation and construction, with less disruption to building occupants
• Affordable to developers and consumers
• Improved indoor air quality, improved comfort, and reduced maintenance.

As part of a forthcoming FOA, BTO will be seeking applications aimed at developing deep energy retrofit and new construction technologies suitable for environments with extremely high or low temperatures that tackle a combination of envelope, heating, cooling, and water heating issues, and hold appeal for both building owners and occupants. Priority shall be given to those with prior experience serving low-income residents living in extremely hot or cold environments.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) through its HydroWIRES Initiative, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Technology Innovation to Increase Hydropower Flexibility ”.

The FOA seeks next-generation technologies from manufacturers, equipment vendors, and research organizations to improve the flexible capabilities of the U.S. hydropower fleet. The development of technical solutions to improve unit flexibility – either via improving performance across various dimensions of flexible operations or reducing negative impacts of flexible operations – can increase the value of hydropower in an evolving power system by improving its ability to integrate additional wind and solar generation. 

This request for information is intended to inform the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by providing input and feedback on the concept of an “energyshed” as well as the benefits of and barriers to energyshed management systems. EERE is seeking input on: 

• the concept and operational bounds of an energyshed,
• the value and uses of tracking the location of energy serving a particular load area for different stakeholders, and specific capabilities and information that would be most useful for that end,
• the development of tools and analyses to define and establish an energyshed and operate an energyshed management system, 
• understanding the impact of more locally derived renewable electricity generation,
• how energyshed managements systems may affect grid operation on a day-to-day basis as well as long term,
• what business models are most appropriate to obtain more locally derived electricity generation, and
• how locally generated electricity will impact the development of a more resilient power system, including microgrids.

This information will inform DOE’s consideration of a potential funding opportunity to develop and deploy an energyshed management system.  EERE is interested in responses from all stakeholders, including representatives of state and cities, academia, national laboratories, non-governmental organizations, interest groups, private sector, and more. 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) seeks stakeholder input on factors to consider in relation to defining “an area where there is inadequate electric service”. WPTO proposes to define “an area in which there is inadequate electric service” as follows:

“An area in which there is inadequate electric service means a geographic area that lacks access to an interconnected electrical grid or where a customer may not reasonably access electrical energy services; is subject to frequent electric outages, based on common reliability metrics; or where the cost of electricity is significantly above the typical residential electricity cost.”

The above definition will be applied in accordance with the definition of a qualified hydroelectric facility set in Section 242 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, 42 U.S.C. § 15881 (“Section 242”), as amended by Section 3005(a) of the Energy Act of 2020.

A recording of the FOA Webinar held 7/22/2021 is here: https://youtu.be/0KqRyn57BmE 

A copy of the slides is found under DOCUMENTS below.

Modification 0004

The purpose of this modification is to add additional resources to Appendix G - Example performance Metrics. The word "design" is also added to Topic Area 1, Budget Period 2 title in Table 3 to clarify expectations for the Budget Period. 

Modification 0003

The purpose of this modification is to amend Table 3 for Topic Area 1. See page 2 of the FOA for details. 

Modification 0002

The purposes of this modification are to:

1. Revise Topic Area 1 Anticipated Period of Performance to 48 months: Table 1 on page 11, revised Topic Area 1 award duration to up to 48 months on page 12, and BP2 duration to 39 months in Table 3 on page 16. Change wording on page 12 to say between instead of at least; and

2. Replace “Project partners” with “subrecipients” and “subcontractors” with “vendors” on pages 42, 49,50, and 51.

Modification 0001

The purposes of this modification are to:

1. Add additional text to Table 3. TA1 (both TA1a and TA1b) Scope, deliverables, schedule on pages 15 and 16; and

2. Revise Topic Area 3 requirements in Section III.E. Limitation on Number of Concept Papers and Full Applications Eligible for Review on page 39. 

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is issuing, on behalf of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled “Advancing Wave Energy Technologies through Open Water Testing at PacWave.” This FOA will directly support open water Research and Development (R&D) at the PacWave test site[1] that is needed to advance wave energy converter (WEC) technologies towards commercial viability. This FOA will only fund projects that perform testing at the PacWave test site, projects that propose testing at the PacWave North test site will not be considered for funding. Accordingly, the remainder of this solicitation refers to “PacWave South” simply as “PacWave”.

WEC technologies are still in the early stages of development and the industry has had limited opportunities to deploy and test cost-competitive WEC technologies. Accordingly, WPTO supports a broad spectrum of foundational R&D activities aimed at advancing WEC technologies that can provide electricity to utility grids to help meet the Nation’s growing renewable energy needs, and can provide energy solutions that support the development of the blue economy[2]. In this context, over the last decade WPTO has supported a broad range of R&D including the development of numerical modeling tools, the design and optimization of WEC systems and components, the characterization of WECs and system components through tank and laboratory testing, the characterization and development of materials, the development of WEC control systems, along with limited open water systems testing activities.

Enabled in part by WPTO’s support, the WEC industry and R&D community have developed WEC technologies and system designs to the point where comprehensive open water testing is needed to advance technologies further towards commercialization. To meet the open water testing needs of the WEC community, WPTO recently made a significant investment in the PacWave wave energy test facility that is being constructed off the coast of Newport, Oregon. This pre-permitted, highly-energetic, and grid-connected deep water wave energy testing facility enables system and component testing across a range of scales. WPTO anticipates that PacWave will play a critical role in the development of the WEC industry and that early PacWave testing campaigns will significantly advance WEC technologies.

[1] PacWave is an open ocean wave energy testing facility consisting of two sites, each located just a few miles from the deep-water port of Newport, Oregon on the ever-energetic Pacific Ocean. See the PacWave website and the “PacWave Information and Support” section for additional details - http://pacwaveenergy.org/

[2] WPTO broadly categorizes the blue economy into two themes: (1) Providing power at sea to support offshore industries, science, and security activities and (2) Meeting the energy and water needs of coastal and rural island stakeholders in support of resilient coastal communities. More information about blue economy application of WEC technologies can be found in the Powering the Blue Economy™ report at , which investigates opportunities for marine energy to provide power for remote locations, microgrids, maritime industry activities, or ocean R&D expeditions.-economy-report, which investigates opportunities for marine energy to provide power for remote locations, microgrids, maritime industry activities, or ocean R&D expeditions.

MODIFICATION 0001: The purpose of this modification is to extend the response deadline to August 20, 2021. Please see the updated RFI for additional details. 

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, utilities, and energy-efficiency program administrators, and other stakeholders on issues related to the uptake of smart manufacturing technologies, energy management system implementation, and integration of the two. EERE is specifically interested in information on how energy efficiency programs serving the industrial sector might increase awareness of and provide training and technical assistance on smart manufacturing and energy management systems to manufacturers with particular interest in manufacturers with limited internal capabilities. This is solely a request for information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). EERE is not accepting applications.

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.
EERE will not share responses to this RFI. 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.

Request for Information Response Guidelines Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to RIIAMP@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on August 20, 2021. 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 7 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

Please identify your answers by responding to a specific question or topic if 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.

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

• Company / institution name;

• Company / institution contact;

• Contact's address, phone number, and e-mail address.

The Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and the Advanced Grid Research and Development Division (AGR&D), within DOE’s Office of Electricity (OE), seeks public comment on its Request for Information (RFI) number DE-FOA-0002528 regarding Integrating Electric Vehicles onto the Electric Grid. The Energy Act of 2020 directs DOE to examine the research, development, and demonstration opportunities, challenges, and standards needed for integrating electric vehicles onto the electric grid.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled “Advancing Wave Energy Technologies through Open Water Testing at PacWave.” 

This FOA supports open water Research and Development (R&D) at the PacWave test site that is needed to advance wave energy converter (WEC) technologies towards commercial viability. This FOA will only fund projects that will advance WEC technologies at the PacWave South test site. Projects that propose testing at the PacWave North test site will not be considered for funding. 

This FOA is focused on advancing WEC systems that vary in size from utility-scale, grid-connected devices, to smaller non-utility, non-grid-connected devices that provide power for Blue Economy applications. Specifically, this FOA aims to support R&D projects across three Topic Areas (TAs). TA1 focuses on testing of WEC system designs intended for remote and microgrid applications as well as open-source WEC system that aim to generate publicly available data and knowledge to benefit the entire WEC industry. TA2 focuses on advancing WEC designs for future deployment at PacWave South. TA3 is an open topic area that will support wave energy R&D projects at PacWave South that advance WECs and supporting technologies.

PacWave is an open ocean wave energy testing facility consisting of two sites, each located just a few miles from the deep-water port of Newport, Oregon on the ever-energetic Pacific Ocean. See the PacWave website and the “PacWave Information and Support” section for additional details - http://pacwaveenergy.org/ 

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

This Request for Information (RFI) is intended to inform the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity (ED) on enabling an inclusive and just entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem in climate and energy technologies. DOE seeks to understand the barriers to entry to DOE funding opportunities and other forms of assistance for first-time applicants, people and organizations from underrepresented communities, underserved and frontline communities, and from other non-traditional backgrounds, as well as understanding programmatic, operational, or other internal measures that DOE can implement to remove these barriers. Measures may encompass application support services for funding opportunities, incubation and acceleration services for entrepreneurship; and other measures to support a just and inclusive innovation ecosystem. This RFI is not aimed at policy recommendations that require changes in the law, but those that DOE can implement using its existing authorities. 

This is a Request for Information (RFI) issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hydrogen Program, which encompasses multiple offices within DOE, including the Energy Efficiency Renewable Energy (EERE), Fossil Energy (FE), Nuclear Energy (NE), Electricity (OE), and Science (SC). The intent of this RFI is to obtain public input in support of DOE’s Hydrogen Energy Earthshot initiative to enable low cost, clean hydrogen at scale. 

Hydrogen is the first in a series of Energy Earthshots launched by DOE to look beyond incremental advances and aim, instead, at the game-changing breakthroughs that will secure American leadership in enabling net-zero carbon technologies and support sustainable development around the world, to the benefit of all Americans.

The information being sought is intended to assist DOE’s Hydrogen Program in further defining the scope and priorities of its initiatives to accelerate the production, storage, delivery, and end use of clean, affordable hydrogen in the United States. Specifically, this RFI seeks input on viable hydrogen demonstration and deployment projects that enable clean hydrogen production, infrastructure and end use to reduce emissions, create jobs, and enable a net-zero carbon emissions economy by 2050. 

The RFI is being coordinated by DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) across EERE, FE, NE, OE, and SC, and input will also be provided to other relevant offices within DOE, including the Loan Program Office, Office of Technology Transfer, Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs, and Office of Economic Impact and Diversity. The information collected may be used for internal DOE planning and decision-making purposes across its research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) portfolio, including but not limited to determining potential new areas of focus and innovations, challenges/gaps, funding opportunities, analyses, regional opportunities, the potential for sustainable careers, including consideration of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and other input. This is not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA); DOE is not accepting applications.

Purpose:

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, investors, developers, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on potential hydrogen demonstration projects and their associated locations, including potentially ideal locations in the United States. Specifically, DOE is requesting input on the following categories:

• Regional Hydrogen Production, Resources, and Infrastructure
• End Users for Hydrogen in the Region, Cost, and Value Proposition
• Greenhouse Gas and Pollutant Emissions Reduction Potential
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI), Jobs, and Environmental Justice
• Science and Innovation Needs and Challenges
• Additional Information

In November 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the Plastics Innovation Challenge, which aims to accelerate innovations to significantly reduce plastic waste and position the U.S. as a global leader in advanced plastics recycling technologies and in the development and manufacturing of plastics that are recyclable by design. As part of the broader Plastics Innovation Challenge, DOE is issuing this Funding Opportunity Announcement to spur innovative solutions to plastics recycling.

DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) develops technologies that convert domestic biomass and waste resources into fuels, products, and power to enable affordable energy, economic growth, and innovation in renewable energy and chemicals production. DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) develops technologies that drive energy productivity improvements in the U.S. manufacturing sector, efficiently utilize abundant and available domestic energy resources, and support the manufacture of clean energy products with benefits extending across the economy.  This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will support high-impact technology research and development (R&D) in technologies that overcome the challenges associated with the recycling of films, which are often used in single-use packaging applications.  

BETO and AMO are part of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Offices that invest in high-impact, high-value technology R&D across the energy spectrum that industry would be unable to pursue independently due to the high level of risk and technology uncertainty. BETO and AMO fund applied R&D to bolster the body of scientific and engineering knowledge that can enable a new plastics economy by developing novel plastics, including bio-based plastics, capable of being efficiently recycled, composted, or biodegraded and establishing deconstruction and upcycling pathways for existing polymers that will generate high-value products. This FOA builds upon the FY20 BOTTLE FOA and seeks to fill a gap identified in the 2019 Plastics for a Circular Economy Workshop, where single-use packaging was highlighted as an important focus area. 

Plastic waste is an internationally recognized problem. Flexible, single-use packaging, including both single layer and multi-layer, (hereto referred to broadly as “films”) are among the most challenging plastics to recycle, upcycle, or biodegrade due to contamination and properties inherent to their use. At least 32% of global plastic packaging is leaked into the environment, while another 40% is landfilled, losing the energy and value embedded in this class of materials. Films, which are primarily made up of LDPE and LLDPE, make up over five percent by weight wt% of landfilled waste in the US. New technologies to make recycling and upcycling of films economically viable, including designing films for easy recycling, upcycling, or degradation in the environment, will have a large economic and environmental impact. Recycling and upcycling often yield products or plastics with significantly lower carbon footprints over virgin materials, with greenhouse gas emissions being reduced by as much as 70%. Moreover, improvements in recycling technology will lead to improved recycling economics, increased recycling infrastructure investment, and recycling jobs across the entirety of the United States.

State of the art technologies targeting films are highly varied due to the variability inherent to film materials. Research to address multilayer packaging has included single-polymer, single film substitutes, single-polymer multilayer film substitutes with each layer having specific orientation, solvent extraction, and thermal deconstruction. Traditional single-polymer films are being addressed primarily through improved sorting and collection techniques and degradable/biodegradable alternatives, though these alternatives result in a loss of the embodied energy and value of the material. Even after sorting, many films are landfilled due to the high cost associated with transporting this low density material, the low value of recycled films, and the low cost of virgin material.

This FOA seeks applications that enable the recycling and upcycling of films. Challenges associated with film recycling are vast, spanning collection, sorting/separation, contamination, and lack of economic methods for recycling and upcycling. Multilayer materials present further challenges, including immiscibility of different polymer layers and inclusion of inorganic materials. Technology can help to address these challenges by developing methods for recycling, deconstruction, and upcycling films that are sufficiently economic to incentivize collection, sorting and retention. Designing films to be inherently more recyclable or biodegradable, while retaining desired properties such as flexibility, barrier properties and strength could also make recycling of films more economical.

This FOA aims to increase recycling, upcycling, or environmentally benign degradation of films by pursuing two approaches:

1. Development of recycling and upcycling pathways that yield clear and economically favorable pathways for waste film will incentivize waste film collection and recycling; and
2. Redesign of multi-layer films to be inherently recyclable or biodegradable, enabling this complex material to be included in the recycling stream.

To support widespread PV deployment, any barriers should be considered and resolved including when PV system components reach their end-of-life (EoL). There are opportunities to improve PV EoL management techniques such as reuse, recovery, recycling, or disposal. These are not well understood since EoL volumes have been low. This RFI seeks to understand the current causes of EoL, how EoL is handled, and designs and actions to improve recycling and reuse.

The focus of this FOA is the development and deployment of disruptive technologies and techniques that will affect fluid flow within enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) fracture networks, or reservoirs, which are the “engine” that drive geothermal heat production. EGS requires the ability to control the flow of fluids through and throughout the created reservoir. Standard approaches for altering flow through a reservoir are borehole centric where flow control into or out of a well is centrally managed from the wellbore.  This FOA is specifically focused on the development of novel technologies and techniques that can be used to control flow regimes outside of the wellbore and within the reservoir and to mitigate undesirable flow and heat transfer rates that degrade the performance of EGS reservoirs.   Successful projects will develop controllable in-reservoir fracture permeability modification systems/methods that yield long-term reservoir productivity improvements with the ability to reverse imparted effects. 

This request for information is intended to inform the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) on the current barriers to rapid community solar deployment, and other community-serving models to increase solar access, that include meaningful benefits such as bill reductions, workforce development, local resiliency, and community wealth building. SETO is interested in responses from all stakeholders, including community-based organizations, local businesses, governments, etc. serving environmental justice communities, fossil fuel transitioning communities, and other groups that work with individuals and organizations with high energy burdens. 

This request for information is intended to inform the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) on workforce development programs, strategies, and tools to support the development of a diverse and skilled clean energy workforce. DOE is re-envisioning its approach to supporting vocational-based career opportunities holistically across clean energy technologies. This RFI is targeted at the solar industry and training providers to better understand how SETO can support an industry-driven, employee-centered approach to the clean energy workforce of the future.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement creates a competitive opportunity for applicants to manage SETO’s existing SolSmart program. SolSmart is a national community designation program that recognizes communities for making it easier and faster to install solar energy. The program provides local governments with technical assistance to improve their permitting, inspection, and zoning processes, and take other steps to reduce soft costs. The current awardee’s period of performance is coming to an end, and SETO will compete the opportunity to take on management of the program. Applicants will also propose ways to further develop the program to incorporate new emerging technologies, support under-resourced communities, measure program impacts, and contribute to the Biden Administration’s equity and climate goals. 

Any individuals or organizations interested in being included on the Teaming Partner List should review Section I.A.iv of the FOA and send the following information to SolSmart.FOA@ee.doe.gov.

• Organization
• Contact Name
• Organization Type
• Area of Expertise
• Short Description of Capabilities
• Contact Information

A recording of the FOA Webinar that was held on May 18, 2021 can be found here. The password is PvSmW3MD. Please use Google Chrome to view the webinar. 

The Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), welcomes input from energy system modelers, geothermal developers and operators, utilities and public utility commissions, as well as from academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other geothermal stakeholders on opportunities to improve geothermal technology cost and performance modeling.As variable renewable energy resources continue declining in cost, and grid operators transition to greater use of what is increasingly cost-competitive energy storage, the energy and capacity value of geothermal generation needs to be accurately represented and captured by resource adequacy planners. GTO is soliciting this Request For Information (RFI) from the broader stakeholder community in order to ensure that geothermal technology costs and performance assumptions are most accurately represented in all grid modeling and planning efforts.  This will ensure that geothermal achieves appropriate market share that can support a reliable, resilient, and decarbonized grid.  With the help of stakeholder feedback from this RFI, GTO aims to improve its understanding of where there may be gaps in existing geothermal technology performance and cost models, and thus where to best focus future potential efforts for eliminating such gaps.

Building a clean energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This Federal Agency Call (FAC) will advance the Biden Administration’s goals to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050“ to the benefit of all Americans. The Department of Energy (DOE) is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of disadvantaged communities.

As part of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the Federal Energy Management Program’s (FEMP) priority is to help federal agencies advance the energy efficiency and resilience of their operations, while addressing climate change and minimizing the carbon footprint. FEMP assists Federal agencies in meeting energy- and climate change-related goals by bringing expertise from all levels of project and policy implementation to identify affordable solutions and facilitate public-private partnerships.

DOE and FEMP intend to play a leading role in meeting the challenge facing our nation and our planet from climate change through advancing a plan to lead the world in building a clean energy economy to address the climate emergency. DOE and FEMP will use its resources to turn the threat of climate change into an opportunity by catalyzing our partners across the Federal government to lead through the power of example toward the goal of building a 100% clean energy economy with net-zero emissions.

FEMP’s Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) 2021 FAC will provide direct funding to Federal agencies for the development of energy and water efficiency projects and processes that address climate change mitigation and/or adaptation. The purpose of the AFFECT 2021 FAC funding is to initiate, supplement, improve or otherwise increase the viability and adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation actions entailing energy efficiency, clean energy, and operational resilience at U.S. Federal government-owned facilities. This is accomplished through leveraging the use of a privately financed performance contract in the form of an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC), ENABLE contract, or Utility Energy Service Contract (UESC) to enhance Federal agency climate change mitigation via energy efficiency, clean energy, and adaptation at mission critical sites. The AFFECT 2021 FAC is expected to provide ‘value added’ additions to projects allowing for greater impact from the projects in terms of energy cost savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, enhanced climate change adaptation and resilience. FEMP also intends for the AFFECT 2021 FAC to provide demonstrated opportunities for replication of projects at other Federal facilities, while building a diversified workforce within the clean energy economy in construction, skilled trades, and engineering to enhance American infrastructure.

Applications must address either or both of the Climate Change Adaptation-Resilient and/or Efficient Areas of Interest identified below, and describe a Replicability Plan highlighting (a) how replication and/or scalability across the agencies’ enterprises will be promoted, and (b) agree to develop a Government Use Case for leveraging across applicable U.S. Federal government-owned facilities.

Through the AFFECT 2021 FAC, FEMP intends to facilitate and promote the use of energy performance contracts to leverage a wider adoption of Climate Change Adaptation-Resilient and/or Efficient projects and processes at all Federal facilities.

Questions regarding the FAC must be submitted to AFFECT2021@ee.doe.gov.

Answers to the questions will be posted to an excel spreadsheet found in the announcement "Documents" section of the FAC posting.

EERE Exchange is designed to enforce the deadlines specified in this FAC. The “Apply” and “Submit” buttons will automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. Should Applicants experience problems with EERE Exchange, the following information may be helpful.

Applicants that experience issues with submission PRIOR to the FAC deadline:

In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist Applicants in resolving issues.

Please see the full text for the Federal Agency Call (FAC) in the DOCUMENTS section below.

Through this Laboratory CRADA Call, DOE BTO seeks to accelerate the development of emerging building technologies and address barriers to their commercialization and acceptance in the marketplace by cost-sharing collaborative research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) projects. Up to $8.5 million will be made available to national laboratories working on collaborative projects that involve one or more DOE national laboratories and non-lab partners. National laboratories and qualified partners are sought to participate in collaborative projects in one or more of the research areas described in the Laboratory CRADA Call document. Projects must include one or more national laboratories and shall also include partners from one or more of the following: industry; universities; nonprofits; institutes; codes and standards organizations; associations; or other relevant stakeholders. Multiple collaborative research projects are sought under this Lab CRADA call, subject to the availability of funding.

Informational webinar scheduled for April 22, 2021 at 3 PM ET. Access the recording: https://youtu.be/Dnz0DN_66oQ

Notice of Intent to Apply Submission Deadline is April 30, 2021 at 7 PM ET (email bto.crada.call@nrel.gov)

Questions regarding the CRADA Call must be submitted to bto.crada.call@nrel.gov. Answers to the questions will be posted to an FAQs Excel spreadsheet found in the announcement Documents section of the posting. If you are unable to access the FAQs, try using a different web browser or try downloading the document to your computer and removing the “.html” extension added to file name by the web browser (if it is in the file name).

Applicants that experience issues with submission: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist applicants in resolving issues.

Amendment 000003: The purpose of this amendment is to incorporate “Appendix G -- 2021 DOE EERE Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Applicant Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Supplement.” 

Amendment 000002: The purpose of this amendment is to revise Section IV.D, Content and Form of the Full Application, to add a required Location of Work component. Please reference the highlighted yellow sections on page 31 and 40 of the FOA for reference.

Amendment 000001: The purpose of this amendment is to provide further information regarding Cost Share Payments and provide clarification that FFRDCs will be treated as a subrecipient instead of doing work through a Field Work Proposal. See the highlighted yellow sections on page 23 and 25 of the FOA for reference.

The purpose of the announcement is to solicit innovative R&D concepts to enable medium- and heavy-duty original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), suppliers, and fleet partners to develop higher efficiency trucks and freight systems that significantly reduce CO₂ emissions while meeting future criterion emission standards. DOE is seeking vehicle-level efficiency improvements for Class 7-8 regional-haul/long-haul trucks and Class 4-6 vocational trucks as well as system-level freight efficiency improvement (Class 4-8) beyond vehicle hardware. Projects will focus on real world operation with drive-cycle-based fuel economy including representative hub-to-hub routes and last-mile delivery. Predictive models will be developed to guide highest freight efficiency and lowest carbon footprint.

Continued engine research will further optimize efficiency, reduce emissions and allow the use of biofuels and hydrogen, including powertrain artificial intelligence (AI) control for hybrid applications. Projects will pursue a focus on electrification, including hydrogen and fuel cell technology (including hybridization strategies such as fuel cell range extenders), battery electric and plug-in hybrid systems. Projects may also utilize automation/connectivity capabilities to further improve freight efficiency. Fleets operators and companies with large captive fleets are encouraged to be integral parts of teams, from analysis to technology development, and may also lead teams, along with vehicle manufacturers or major suppliers.

The purpose of this amendment is to incorporate “Appendix G -- 2021 DOE EERE Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Applicant Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Supplement.” Please reference pages 88 and 89.

Building a clean energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This FOA will advance the Biden Administration’s goals to to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050“ to the benefit of all Americans. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of disadvantaged communities.

The FOA seeks projects across the following areas: electric vehicle community partner demonstration projects; electric vehicle workplace charging projects; RDD&D of technologies to reduce the cost of EV chargers, advanced engines and fuels that reduce emissions, including natural gas, propane, and dimethyl ether; and, innovative solutions for medium/heavy duty on- and off-road vehicles including electrification and high-power charging.

Amendment 000002

Amendment 000001: The purpose of this amendment is to remove the Risk Mitigation Plan for Topic Areas 1b and 1c; update Appendix G - Acceptable Feedstocks, to correct an error and reconcile Topic Area 3a requirements with the text of the FOA; and update Appendix H - Supplemental Content Requirements and Instructions. See FOA DE-FOA-0002396/00001 for details.

Building a clean and equitable energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This FOA will advance the Biden Administration’s goals to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035 and to “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050.“[1] The Department of Energy (DOE) is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of underserved communities.

In support of these Administration priorities, the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is focused on developing technologies that convert domestic biomass and other waste resources (e.g., municipal solid waste, biosolids) into low-carbon biofuels and bioproducts. These bioenergy technologies can enable a transition to a clean energy economy, create high-quality jobs, support rural economies, and spur innovation in renewable energy and chemicals production – the bioeconomy. The activities funded through this opportunity will mobilize public clean energy investment in the biofuels, chemical and agricultural industries, accelerate the deployment of bioenergy technologies, and support achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.

This FOA supports high-impact technology RDD&D to accelerate the bioeconomy and, in particular, the production of low-carbon fuels for the aviation industry. BETO is focusing on applied RDD&D to improve the performance and reduce cost of biofuel production technologies and scale-up production systems in partnership with industry. By reducing cost and technical risk, BETO can help pave the way for industry to deploy commercial-scale integrated biorefineries and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hard to decarbonize sectors, such as aviation. The Program is focused on developing and demonstrating technologies that are capable of producing low-carbon drop-in biofuels at $2.50 per gallon gasoline equivalent (GGE) by 2030, as well as associated renewable chemical co-products to achieve this target.^[2] BETO is focused on biofuel production pathways that can deliver at least 70% lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum.

The research and development (R&D) activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA will support high-impact RDD&D focusing on the production of low-GHG fuels for the aviation industry, as well as the long-haul trucking and marine industries by soliciting proposals to scale-up technologies; cost effectively produce biomass derived sugars as an intermediate for the production of biofuels and bioproducts; and support cost effective separation technologies. In addition, the FOA will support increasing the efficiency of residential wood heaters and the production of renewable natural gas.

An informational webinar will be held on April 16^th, 2021 at 3:00 PM ET. The webinar will review the Funding Opportunity Announcement and Merit Review process, but will only discuss Topic Area 1: Scale-up of Biotechnologies specific requirements due to the complex nature of the topic area. Please note, there are no particular advantages or disadvantages to the application evaluation process with respect to participating in the webinar. Your participation is completely voluntary. Please register for the webinar at: https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/events/webinar-scale-biotechnologies

The informational webinar slides have been uploaded to the Announcement Documents section below. The informational webinar recording has been posted to YouTube. Interested parties to this FOA can view the webinar at the following link:

Questions regarding the FOA must be submitted to FY21BETOMultiTopicFOA@ee.doe.gov.

Answers to the questions will be posted to an excel spreadsheet found in the announcement Documents section of the FOA posting.

EERE Exchange is designed to enforce the deadlines specified in this FOA. The “Apply” and “Submit” buttons will automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. Should applicants experience problems with EERE Exchange, the following information may be helpful.

Applicants that experience issues with submission PRIOR to the FOA deadline: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist applicants in resolving issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in late submissions: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties so severe that they are unable to submit their application by the deadline, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist the applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing submission on behalf of and with the applicant’s concurrence). Please note, network traffic is at its heaviest during the final hours and minutes prior to submittal deadline. Applicants who experience this during the final hours or minutes and are unsuccessful in uploading documents will not be able to use this process.

[1] Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” January 27, 2021.

[2] U.S. Department of Energy (2020), Bioenergy Technologies Office 2019 R&D State of Technology, DOE/EE-2082, https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/07/f76/beto-2019-state-of-technology-july-2020-r1.pdf

The Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), seeks public comment on its Request for Information (RFI) number DE-FOA-0002502 regarding the Risks in the High-Capacity Batteries, including Electric Vehicle Batteries Supply Chain. On February 24, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive order on ‘‘America’s Supply Chains,’’ which directs several Federal agency actions to secure and strengthen America’s supply chains. One of these directions is for the Secretary of Energy (the Secretary), to submit, within 100 days and in consultation with the heads of appropriate agencies, a report to the President identifying risks in the high-capacity batteries, including electric-vehicle batteries, supply chain and policy recommendations to address these risks.

This is solely a request for information and is not a Funding Opportunity Announcement. The Department of Energy is not accepting applications to this Request for Information.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to VTO@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on April 14, 2021.

The modification updates the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion language and requirements. In addition dates and times have been added for informational webinars.

Topic Area 5 Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS): Photovoltaics (PV) and Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)

PV SIPS applications must be submitted under Topic Area 5.a.

CSP SIPS applications must be submitted under Topic Area 5.b.

Teaming Lists associated with this FOA can be found on the main FOA page

Questions and Answers related to this FOA can be found on the main FOA page

The modification updates the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion language and requirements. In addition dates and times have been added for informational webinars.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to invest in innovative research and development (R&D) that will drive down costs and develop next-generation technologies ready for commercialization. SETO works to accelerate the development and deployment of solar technology to support an equitable transition to a decarbonized electricity system by 2035 and a decarbonized energy sector by 2050. Achieving these goals will support the nationwide effort to meet the threat of climate change and ensure that all Americans benefit from the transition to a clean energy economy. The office supports solar energy research, development, demonstration, and technical assistance in five areas—photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP), systems integration, manufacturing and competitiveness, and soft costs—to improve the affordability, reliability, and domestic benefit of solar technologies on the electric grid.

Topic Area 1 - PV-50: 50-Year Service Life PV Systems

Topic Area 2 - SOLAR R&R: Scalable Outputs for Leveraging Advanced Research on Receivers & Reactors

Topic Area 3 - PTES: Pumped Thermal Energy Storage

Topic Area 5 - SIPS-PV & CSP (Applications must be submitted under DE-TA5-0002378)

4/19/2021 Informational Applicant Webex recording link & password:

https://doe.webex.com/doe/lsr.php?RCID=a242a4aeeef2499d9e9847d89205e738

Password:  iZKTVkC3

Amendment 000002: EERE is amending this Notice of Intent to revise the language in the introduction and topic area descriptions to better align with the most recent guidance from the Acting Assistant Secretary.

_____________________________________

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “FY21 Bioenergy Technologies Scale-up and Conversion FOA.”

Building a clean energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. The Administration has laid out a bold plan to lead the world in building a clean energy economy, addressing climate change and achieving net-zero emissions no later than 2050 to the benefit of all Americans. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of disadvantaged communities.

In support of these Administration priorities, BETO is focused on developing technologies that convert domestic biomass and other waste resources (e.g. municipal solid waste, biosolids) into low-carbon biofuels and bioproducts. These bioenergy technologies can enable a transition to a clean energy economy, create high-quality jobs, support rural economies, and spur innovation in renewable energy and chemicals production – the bioeconomy. The activities funded through this opportunity will mobilize public clean energy investment in the biofuels, chemical and agricultural industries, accelerate the deployment of bioenergy technologies, and support achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.

This FOA may support high-impact technology RDD&D to accelerate the bioeconomy and, in particular, the production of low-carbon fuels for the aviation industry. BETO is focusing on applied RDD&D to improve the performance and reduce cost of biofuel production technologies and scale-up production systems in partnership with industry. By reducing cost and technical risk, BETO can help pave the way for industry to deploy commercial-scale integrated biorefineries and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hard to decarbonize sectors, such as aviation. The Program is focused on developing and demonstrating technologies that are capable of producing low-carbon drop-in biofuels at $2.50 per gallon gasoline equivalent (GGE) by 2030, as well as associated renewable chemical co-products to achieve this target. BETO is focused on biofuel production pathways that can deliver at least 70% lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum.

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

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled "Low Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Vehicle Technologies Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment".

Building a clean energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. The Administration has laid out a bold plan to lead the world in building a clean energy economy, address climate change, and net-zero emissions no later than 2050. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering and catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment.

The Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) funds a broad portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects to develop affordable, efficient and clean transportation options to tackle the climate crisis and accelerate the development and widespread use of a variety of innovative transportation technologies. The FOA may seek innovative solutions for on- and off-road vehicles to support the reduction of emissions and increased efficiencies in the transportation sector and may include request for proposals onelectric vehicle community partner demonstration projects, electric vehicle workplace charging, technologies to reduce the cost of EV chargers, advanced engines and fuels including natural gas, propane, and dimethyl ether; and innovative solutions for medium/heavy duty on- and off-road vehicles including electrification and high-power charging

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled "SuperTruck 3."

Building a clean energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. The Administration has laid out a bold plan to lead the world in building a clean energy economy, address climate change, and achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2050. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering and catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment.

How freight moves is changing dramatically due to a number of factors including new technologies, business models, and consumer demands. Although Class 7-8 trucks are still the most significant consumer of fuel, medium duty Class 4-6 vehicles also offer significant opportunities for higher efficiency and electrification.

The Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) funds a broad portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects to develop new affordable, efficient and clean transportation options to tackle the climate crisis and accelerate the development and widespread use of a variety of innovative transportation technologies. VTO-funded research has greatly reduced the cost of electric vehicle batteries and nearly every plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) on the road today uses VTO-developed battery technology. There are also efficiency opportunities beyond vehicle components and systems. Advances in connectivity and automation have the potential to dramatically improve transportation system-level energy efficiency, energy productivity, and affordability. VTO has developed robust modeling, simulation, and big data analytics capabilities, while research of advanced sensing and perception technologies, system controls, and other connected and automated technologies has advanced rapidly.

HFTO is focused on enabling large scale hydrogen production, delivery, storage, and use across applications and sectors, including medium and heavy-duty transportation. Interest in hydrogen powered medium/heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles is growing rapidly due to the benefits of zero tailpipe emissions and low life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, along with extended driving range, fast fueling times, high fuel efficiency, high power operation, and zero noise pollution.

In partnership with industry, EERE’s VTO and HFTO have established aggressive targets to focus research on cost-reduction, efficiency, and performance.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S.Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy(EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO). The U.S. manufacturing sector uses 25% of the nation’s energy and has an annual energy bill of more than $150 billion. Efficiency improvements in manufacturing not only benefit the manufacturing sector, but also impact the energy efficiency of products used throughout the economy.

AMO's technical partnerships support the development, deployment and validation of technologies and practices including increasing the productivity and competitiveness of American manufacturers and other large energy-using facilities and continuing the education and development of the US workforce of energy professionals.

The Federal Government has been funding the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC)1 program, formerly called the Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Center program, since 1976. The goal of the IAC program is twofold: first, to help US manufacturing competitiveness by providing assessments and recommendations for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on energy efficiency, productivity, sustainability and competitiveness – including measuring the impacts of these recommendations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and second, to address a growing shortage of engineering professionals with applied energy and manufacturing-related skills by training a diverse cross-section of engineering students through hands-on involvement in these assessments.

This is a restricted eligibility announcement. Eligibility is restricted to thefollowing types of entities: a U.S. college or school of engineering that is an integral part of its institutional structure and that has at least one of its four year undergraduate programs accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission or the Technology Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) or equivalent (The IAC must be inthe engineering department that holds the programmatic ABET or equivalent accreditation). The U.S. college or school of engineering must be physically located in the U.S. Eligible minority-serving institutions (MSIs) that meet the eligibility requirements are encouraged to apply.

MODIFICATION 000001

The purpose of this modification is to: add a Submission Deadline for Reviewer Comments to the table on page 1; edit the first paragraph in Section III.F., page 28, to clarify that only one application is allowed per institution; and fix missing format issue of labeling “Funding Opportunity Description” on page 7 as the start of Section I.

MODIFICATION 000002

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is issuing, on behalf of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002446. The activities supported by this FOA are authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005) Public Law 109-58 (Aug. 5, 2005), Title VIII - HYDROGEN, Sections 801 to 816. These provisions are found in the United States Code at 42 U.S.C. §§ 16151 to 16165. Title VIII authorizes the Secretary of Energy to conduct a program of research, development and demonstration on technologies relating to the production, purification, distribution, storage, and use of hydrogen energy, fuel cells, and related infrastructure.

This FOA supports research and development (R&D) to enable “H2@Scale” − a DOE initiative to achieve large scale production, storage, transport, and utilization of hydrogen across multiple sectors.1 Supporting EERE’s core priorities of energy affordability, integration and storage, H2@Scale research, development and demonstration (RD&D) aims to advance the adoption of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in integrated energy systems across key applications that provide a value proposition as well as reduce emissions. However, a number of challenges remain including cost, performance, durability, manufacturing and scale-up issues, and developing integrated systems that demonstrate the unique technical, economic and environmental benefits of hydrogen and fuel cells.

To address these challenges, HFTO supports a comprehensive RD&D portfolio addressing materials-, component- and systems-level R&D on hydrogen and fuel cell technologies (e.g., MW-scale electrolyzers, fuel cells for heavy-duty transportation applications, hydrogen delivery and fueling infrastructure, among others); and technology acceleration efforts addressing first-of-a-kind demonstrations of integrated energy systems, as well as manufacturing innovations and safety codes and standards. HFTO RD&D relies heavily on collaborations among various industry and university stakeholders and the national laboratories, including through HFTO-managed consortia.

This year, HFTO launched two major collaborative research initiatives leveraging world-class expertise and state-of-the-art equipment at the national laboratories: the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck (M2FCT) consortium and the H2NEW consortium.2 Under each consortium, DOE national laboratories are working together in cutting-edge R&D and collaborating with the hydrogen and fuel cell communities to identify innovative ways to make hydrogen and fuel cell technologies more affordable and competitive in today’s market. Each consortium is planned at $50 million over five years, along with a similar level for industry and university FOAs, to advance progress in specific hydrogen production and fuel cell RD&D areas:

• M2FCT includes Los Alamos and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories as co-leads, and focuses on fuel cell durability, performance, and cost to better position fuel cell trucks as a viable option in the long-haul trucking market.
• H2NEW includes National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory as co-leads, and focuses on R&D to enable affordable, durable and efficient large-scale electrolyzers, which produce hydrogen from electricity and water (at both high and low temperatures).

This HFTO FY21 RD&D FOA will provide more than $33,500,000 in Federal funding for topics designed to supplement the current HFTO RD&D portfolio in the advancement of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, with an emphasis on incentivizing collaborative progress among industry, university and national laboratory stakeholders, including coordination with the M2FCT and H2NEW Consortia. This FOA includes the following four areas of R&D:

2) Efficient and Innovative Hydrogen Production This topic includes two focus areas aimed at developing sustainable generation technologies to enable low-cost production of clean hydrogen at large scale. The first area, carried out in collaboration with DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), focuses on increasing the production volume of advanced components, stacks, sub-systems, and systems for multi-MW-scale high-temperature electrolyzers to lower hydrogen production costs. This would be coordinated with the H2NEW consortium. The second focus area supports technology development which enables low cost hydrogen production via waste and biomass conversion. Research approaches in this area include microbial conversion technologies viable at large or distributed/community scales, with development of novel systems to bring down cost, improve yield, and enable scale-up.

3) High-flow Fueling Applications This topic includes two focus areas for development of novel hydrogen fueling technologies and processes that can increase hydrogen dispensing rates to facilitate rapid fueling of heavy-duty vehicles. The first topic area focuses on low-cost, reliable, domestically supplied hydrogen fueling station components to enable high-flow hydrogen fueling of heavy-duty trucks. The second focus area supports R&D necessary to develop a high-flow gaseous fueling model and ultimately a standard protocol which can achieve targeted fill rates.

4) Analysis This topic includes three focus areas for the development of a comprehensive set of cost analyses involving all aspects of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. Projects would define the current state-of-the-art in key areas, develop and refine system configurations and designs, provide guidance on R&D gaps, and help to direct future R&D priorities in fuel cell, hydrogen production, and hydrogen storage technologies.

***NOTICE: New Application System Launched***

EERE issued this FOA in December of 2020 via the new EERE Program Information Center (EPIC) website https://epic.ee.doe.gov/

*******HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE, the FOA has been moved to the Exchange website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov. Applications, for those that submitted an eligible Conept Paper under this FOA in EPIC, must be submitted through Exchange by the deadline listed below.

In addition, all questions pertaining to this FOA must now be submitted to HFTOFOA@ee.doe.gov. The list of Q&A's from EPIC, to date, is posted below.

The Vehicle Technologies Office funds a broad portfolio of early-stage research to develop new affordable, efficient and clean transportation options to enable industry to accelerate the development and widespread use of a variety of innovative transportation technologies. The research pathways focus on fuel diversification, vehicle efficiency, energy storage, lightweight materials, and new mobility technologies to improve the overall energy efficiency and affordability of the transportation system.

Amendment 0003 – The purposes of this modification are to extend the submission deadline for Concept Papers to 2/3/2021 at 5PM ET, submission deadlines for full applications to 4/7/2021 at 5pm ET, expected submission deadline for replies to reviewer comments to 5/21/2021 at 5pm ET, expected date for EERE selection notifications to 7/30/2021, and expected timeframe for award negotiations to be August – September 2021. This modification will also incorporate the following FOA document changes: to change the language in this FOA to reflect the change in software platform from EPIC to EERE Exchange at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov; to remove from this FOA sections IV.J.xi and VI.B.vii.4, both titled “Compliance with the Executive Order 13950”, as Executive Order 13950 was revoked on 1/20/2021; to remove Open Source Software Distribution Plan from merit review criterion 2; to add a new section VI.B.xvii “Implementation of Executive Order 13798.”, and to add Table of Personnel to FOA section VI.B.xviii. Please note, as of this modification date 01/22/2021 at 5PM ET/3 pm MT, the EPIC system will not accept any further submissions, and all questions and answers related to this FOA will now be posted on EERE Exchange at: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov. Please note that you must first select this specific FOA Number in order to view the questions and answers specific to this FOA.

DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) develops technologies that convert domestic biomass and waste resources into fuels, products, and power to enable affordable energy, economic growth, and innovation in renewable energy and chemicals production. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002423 will support BETO’s highest priority research and development (R&D) areas in two BETO programs: Feedstock Technologies and Advanced Algal Systems. Both Topic Areas support BETO’s objectives to reduce the minimum selling price of drop-in biofuels, lower the cost of biopower, and enable high-value products from biomass or waste resources.

Under this funding opportunity, BETO is interested in the following Topic Areas:

Topic Area 1: Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste to Enable Production of Conversion-Ready Feedstocks

Subtopic 1a: Measurement of Variability of Key MSW Characteristics within and across Unique MSW Streams

Subtopic 1b: Development of Novel Methods for Rapid/Real-time Measurements

Topic Area 2: Algae Productivity Exceeding Expectations (APEX)

Subtopic 2a: Improvements in Productivity with Traditional Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Supply

Subtopic 2b: Improvements in Productivity with Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO₂ from Ambient Air

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.

Please see the full FOA in the DOCUMENTS section below.

The required Concept Paper due date for this FOA is 02/03/2021. The Full Application due date for this FOA is 04/07/2021.

Mod 005-

The purpose of this modification is to update the number of pages allowed for Reply to Reviewer Comments in the text on page 64.

Mod 004- The purpose of this modification is to provide clarification on where to upload 1-page letters of prospective interest in hosting research from offshore wind developers with projects in relevant geographic locations. See pages 52, 58, and 59.

Mod 003- The purpose of this modfication is to update the following in Table as shown on FOA Cover Page:

Submission Deadline for Full Applications;

Expected Submission Deadline for Replies to Reviewer Comments;

Expected Date for EERE Selection Notifications; and

Expected Timeframe for Award Negotiations.

Mod 002 - The purpose of this modification is to make the following change to Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number DE-FOA-0002237: "Offshore Wind Energy Environmental Research and Instrumentation Validation": Provide clarification that Concept Papers and Full Applications for Topic Areas 1, 2 and 3--Sub-Topic 1 may cover more than one technology and research focus. See pages 49 and 52.

Mod 001 - The purpose of this modification is to make the following changes to Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number DE-FOA-0002237: "Offshore Wind Energy Environmental Research and Instrumentation Validation":

1) Delete references to EERE Program Information Center (EPIC) and replace with references to EERE Exchange. (All submissions shall be submitted to through the EERE Exchange Website at: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/. All questions related to this FOA shall be sent to the FOA Inbox OSWENVFOA@ee.doe.gov.;

2) Update the individual award celling as shown on Page 35;

3) Remove references to Executive Order 13950, Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping;

4) Add Implementation of Executive Order 13798, Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty to Section VI.B.xvii;

5) Add Table of Personnel to Section VI.B.xviii; and

6) Add Budget for DOE/NNSA FFRDC to Section IV.D.xi.

In conjunction with the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), and in coordination with partnering agencies, the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) is releasing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support regionally focused, coordinated research efforts to increase understanding of the environmental impacts of offshore wind development as well as to advance and validate technical readiness of tools for monitoring and minimizing impacts.

This FOA will support work across three Topic Areas:

1) Development of methodologies and evaluation of offshore wind impacts on wildlife in U.S. Atlantic waters;

2) Development of methodologies and evaluation of offshore wind impacts on the ecology of commercially fished species in US Atlantic waters; and

3) Environmental baseline studies and environmental monitoring technology development and validation focused on U.S. waters off of the U.S. West Coast, in preparation for future floating offshore wind development.

DOE anticipates issuing a single award of up to $7.5 million for Topic Area 1, a single award of up to $3.5 million for Topic Area 2, and 3–4 awards ranging from $750,000 to $2 million for Topic Area 3. Additional cost share of 30% is required for Topic Areas 1 and 2 and 20% is required for Topic Area 3.

To apply to this FOA, applicants must submit application materials through this EERE Exchange website.

This FOA intends to support research and development of grid forming inverters, DER controls and to accelerate commercialization of innovative product ideas that can substantively increase U.S. domestic manufacturing and expand private investment across the solar industry supply chain (photovoltaics, power electronics, systems integration, concentrating solar thermal power, and more).

Modification 000003 - See the Modification table in the FOA. Changes from modification 000003 are highlighted in blue.

Modification 000002 - See the Modification table in the FOA. Changes from modification 000002 are highlighted in green.

Modification 000001 - See the Modification table in the FOA. Changes from modification 000001 are highlighted in yellow.

Informational Webinar

An informational webinar was held to provide information on the FOA to potential applicants on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, 1:00pm ET. Please see link below to access the slides for this webinar.

https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/funding-opportunity-announcement-solar-energy-technologies-office-fiscal-year-2021

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit input from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and the public on research needs regarding offshore wind energy systems and their integration with the electric grid, as outlined in the RFI Document. This is solely a request for information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). EERE is not accepting applications.

Respondents to this RFI may respond to one or more of the topics, or any number of the questions outlined in the RFI Document.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to WindEnergyRFI@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00 pm (ET) on January 24, 2021. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email.

This is a Request for Information 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.

Modification 00003

The purpose of this modification is to:

1) Revise Submission Deadline for Full Applications to April 16, 2021 at 5pm ET as listed on the title page and page 25.

Modification 000002

The purpose of this modification is to:

Modification 000001

The purposes of this modification are to:

1) Revise the Submission Deadline for Full Applications and Submission Deadline for Reply to Reviewer Comments dates as listed on the NOTA's title page and on page 25;

2) Add the Expected Date for Concept Paper Encourage/Discourage Notifications and the Expected Date for Full Application Reviewer Comments on NOTA page 25; and

3) Correct references to “Concept Paper Requirements” on page 29, these are corrected to “Technical Volume Requirements”.

The objectives of this Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Notice of Opportunity for Technical Assistance (NOTA) are to:

* Provide hydropower decision-makers—such as utilities and system operators—with National Lab expertise and capabilities to address challenges and capture opportunities for their systems;

* Validate National Lab-led modeling, analysis, and tools developed under the HydroWIRES initiative for the benefit of the broader community; and

* Further our collective understanding ofpossible roles for hydropower under evolving power system conditions that reach beyond those considered by most planners and operators today.

WPTO anticipates providing Technical Assistance (TA) to up to 6 recipients. Each recipient will receive assistance valued at up to $400,000. WPTO will provide the funding to the TA team that will provide the TA for the selected projects. There is no financial assistance available under this NOTA; only TA will be provided. WPTO will not purchase hardware, software, or provide any direct funding to selected organizations through this NOTA. Recipients will not be required to provide cash cost share, although in-kind contributions for data, information, and critical review of results are necessary for project success.

WPTO is under no obligation to pay for any costs associated with preparation or submission of applications. WPTO reserves the right to provide TA in whole or in part, to any, all, or none of the applications submitted in response to this NOTA.

An informational webinar was held on November 4, 2020, at 2PM EST. The following is the link for the webinar presentation: https://doe.webex.com/recordingservice/sites/doe/recording/playback/9f950d90ed0440138b28dd6ccf6a2b7b

Webinar Password: nSFav3Qy

Webinar Text-Alternative version: https://www.energy.gov/eere/water/de-foa-0002363-notice-opportunity-technical-assistance-nota-improving-hydropower-s-value

A Connected Community (CC) is a group of grid-interactive efficient buildings GEB with diverse, flexible end use equipment and other distributed energy resources (DERs) that collectively work to maximize building, community, and grid efficiency. Under this FOA, DOE will select a portfolio of “Connected Community” projects totaling up to $65 million in varying climates, geographies, building types, building vintages, DERs utility/grid/regulatory structures and resource bases. Through funding these projects, DOE hopes to find and share technical and market solutions that will increase demand flexibility and energy efficiency.

Modification 0001: The purpose of this modification was to add Section I.C.: Teaming List, to page 18 of the FOA.

Modification 0002: The purposes of this modification were to:
1. Remove the down select language under section II.A.i. Award Information, Estimated Funding on page 20;
2. Clarify language around the Open Source Software Distribution Plan on page 46 to make it encouraged but not required;
3. Replace Appendix H - Project Evaluation.

Modification 0003: The purposes of this modification were to:
1. Extend the Concept Paper submission due date to be March 3, 2021;
2. Extend the Full Application submission due date to be March 17, 2021.

Questions regarding the FOA must be submitted to CCPilotsFOA@ee.doe.gov

Answer to questions will be posted to an excel spreadsheet found in the announcement Documents section of the FOA posting.

Informational Webinar: A playback of the informational webinar mentioned in the FOA can be found by following this link:

https://doe.webex.com/doe/lsr.php?RCID=aaf39766b42540d3bfe7feca62a3ff94

Passcode: 65mG7mHK

A full transcript of the Informational Webinar can be found in the Documents section below.

EERE Exchange is designed to enforce the deadlines specified in this FOA. The “Apply” and “Submit” buttons will automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. Should applicants experience problems with EERE Exchange, the following information may be helpful.

Applicants that experience issues with submission PRIOR to the FOA deadline: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist applicants in resolving issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in late submissions: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties so severe that they are unable to submit their application by the deadline, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist the applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing submission on behalf of and with the applicant’s concurrence). Please note, network traffic is at its heaviest during the final hours and minutes prior to submittal deadline. Applicants who experience this during the final hours or minutes and are unsuccessful in uploading documents will not be able to use this process.

This is a Request for Information and is not a Funding Opportunity Announcement. The Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), seeks feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on research needs and opportunities related to medium and heavy-duty freight trucking. The information requested is intended to inform EERE’s medium and heavy-duty freight energy and operational efficiency R&D planning. EERE plans to support a future public workshop following this RFI to discuss the feedback received. The Department of Energy is not accepting applications to this Request for Information.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to VTO@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on November 9, 2020.

Please see the full text for the Request for Information (RFI) in the DOCUMENTS section below.

THE BIOENERGY TECHNOLOGIES OFFICE (BETO) SEEKS INFORMATION ABOUT BIOENERGY U.S. WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT OFFERINGS AND GAPS. The Department of Energy (DOE) has released a request for information (RFI) to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, career counselors, educators, and other biofuels and bioproducts stakeholders. Specifically, BETO seeks to provide evidence-based workforce development data to help individuals link to existing and new bioenergy workforce development tools. This evidence-based workforce development data will also assist in preparing the nation's current and future workforce for the rapidly and continually changing workforce demands to reskill and upskill in the bioenergy industry.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to bioenergizeme@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. (EDT) on November 2, 2020.

Please see the full text for the Request for Information (RFI) in the DOCUMENTS section below.

Please see the full RFI document in the Documents section below.

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to overcoming the technical barriers and challenges in the design of clean, efficient residential scale wood heaters and in bioprocessing separations development. EERE is specifically interested in information on the following areas:

Topic Area 1 - Residential Wood Heater Technology Advancement: Identifying the critical technology gaps and resources required to significantly reduce emissions and improve efficiency of residential wood heaters.

Topic Area 2 - Bioprocessing Separations Development: Identifying the critical technology gaps and research needs required to enable more efficient separations technologies spanning biochemical and thermochemical approaches.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to FY21MultiTopic@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on September 21, 2020.

Please see the full RFI document in the Documents section below.

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, codes and standards communities, and other stakeholders on issues related to materials and materials manufacturing process technologies that improve system energy efficiency/performance and extend useful life where harsh service conditions exist. This information will be used by AMO and AES to inform strategies and in support of energy savings and cost reduction goals, as well as to inform future planning and adjustments to their research and development (R&D) portfolios.

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.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to HarshMaterialsRFI@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on September 21, 2020. 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 10 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

Please identify your answers by responding to a specific question or topic if applicable. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they wish.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). SETO supports solar energy research and development (R&D) with the goal of improving the affordability, reliability, and domestic benefit of solar technologies.

The SETO 2020 Perovskite Funding Program seeks to advance perovskite photovoltaic technology development and competitiveness through projects in economically viable device and manufacturing R&D and performance validation. The primary goals are to improve understanding of stability; establish methods to produce high-efficiency, stable devices using industry-relevant fabrication techniques; and develop test protocols that enable high confidence in long-duration field performance of perovskite-based photovoltaic technologies.

Modification 000002 - See the Modification table in the FOA.  Changes from modification 000002 are highlighted in green.

Modification 000001 - See the Modification table in the FOA. Changes from modification 000001 are highlighted in yellow

Informational Webinar

An informational webinar was held to provide information on the FOA to potential applicants on Friday, August 21, 2020, 3:00pm ET. Please see link below to access the recording of this webinar.

Perovskite Funding Opportunity Announcement Webinar

Recording password: AzYsegV5

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) solicits feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders through this RFI. This is solely a request for information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). EERE is not accepting applications.

HFTO is issuing a Request for Information to obtain public input on its efforts to accelerate research, development, demonstration, commercialization, and adoption of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

This RFI is issued to understand how hydrogen and fuel cell research priorities and goals can address evolving technology needs and to inform related research, development and demonstration (RD&D) activities that may be undertaken by DOE. The information being sought under this RFI is intended to assist HFTO in further defining the scope and priorities of its RD&D initiatives as well as its consortia that were established to address its priorities.

The information collected may be used for internal HFTO planning and decision-making purposes, including but not limited to determining potential new areas of focus, funding opportunities, analyses, and organizational frameworks for national lab-based consortia.

Areas of Interest:

• H2@Scale Initiative
• HFTO Strategy and Multiyear Plan
• Priority Application Focus Areas
• Funding Mechanisms and Opportunities (including consortia models)

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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 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 September 15, 2020.

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 RFI is to solicit feedback from interested individuals and entities, such as, industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders to assist the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Storage Grand Challenge identify market opportunities and challenges – both technical and financial – for the development, commercialization, production, and deployment of energy storage technologies. Information received may be used to assist the DOE in planning the scope of future technology studies, deployment, or technology commercialization efforts and may be shared with other federal agencies. The DOE may also use this RFI to gain public input on its efforts, expand and facilitate public access to the DOE’s resources, and to mobilize investment in U.S. energy storage technologies as well as ancillary technologies and efforts that will enable commercialization and widespread adoption. The information collected may be used for internal DOE planning and decision-making to ensure that future activities maximize public benefit while advancing the Administration’s goals for leading the world in building a competitive, clean energy economy; securing America’s energy future; reducing carbon pollution; and creating domestic jobs.

DOE is not accepting applications at this time as part of the ESGC. This is solely an RFI and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). EERE is not accepting applications for financial assistance or financial incentives.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to rticstorage@hq.doe.gov no later than August 21, 2020. Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word (.doc) or (.docx) attachment to the email with no more than 10 pages in length for each section listed in the RFI. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

In recent years a growing number of utilities responsible for clean water have been moving from strict wastewater treatment to water resource management, some formally renaming themselves as water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). Energy efficiency in equipment, processes, and operations is a fundamental part of this transition, and energy savings in facility retrofits can reach 50 percent. In addition to energy efficiency improvements, wastewater contains about five times more energy than is needed for its treatment, creating an opportunity for new, innovative technologies and approaches to recovering that energy content.

Looking even more broadly than municipal wastewater treatment facilities - across the entire energy-water nexus - water and wastewater contain a significant amount of recoverable chemical, thermal, and hydrodynamic energy content. Treatment efficiencies and energy recovery options across the energy-water nexus create the possibility for a growing percentage of treated water and wastewater systems in municipal, industrial, agriculture, utility, oil and gas and other sectors to achieve net-zero energy consumption, and even to become net producers of energy under favorable circumstances.

Energy is often the second-highest operating cost (behind labor costs) for water and wastewater treatment systems. Black & Veatch’s client surveys indicate that energy costs at water and wastewater utilities account for well over 10% of total operating costs for a large majority of utilities, with a significant number of utilities having energy costs that exceed 30 percent. Increasingly stringent regulations for contaminants are pushing water and wastewater treatment systems to use even more advanced – and energy intensive – treatment technologies. The energy use of these systems is expected to increase by up to 20 percent in the coming decades due to more stringent water quality standards and growing water demand based on population growth. Additionally, water and wastewater treatment facilities, pipes, and related infrastructure in cities around the country are approaching their end of expected service life. Therefore, a unique window of opportunity exists to replace the aging infrastructure with new, innovative approaches to water and wastewater treatment, resource recovery, and water reuse by looking more broadly at interconnected, cross-sector opportunities (i.e. municipal, industrial, agriculture, oil and gas, etc.) across the energy-water nexus to develop water and wastewater treatment systems of the future – advanced water resource recovery systems.
The goal of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to conduct research, development, and deployment on technology innovations that enable advanced water resource recovery systems. Topic Area 1 of this FOA seeks to advance the development of transformative technologies beyond early stage research and development (R&D) to become pilot ready (TRL 4-6). Whereas, Topic Area 2 of this FOA seeks to test currently developed, pilot ready technologies (TRL 6-7) though design, build, and operations in industrially relevant conditions to enable commercialization.

This FOA is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) as part of the DOE’s Water Security Grand Challenge (WSGC). The WSGC is a White House initiated, U.S. DOE led framework to advance transformational technology and innovation to meet the global need for safe, secure, and affordable water. Using a coordinated suite of prizes, competitions, R&D, and other programs, the Water Security Grand Challenge has set the following goals for the United States to reach by 2030:

As part of the WSGC, DOE announced a $1 million Water Resource Recovery Prize to accelerate resource recovery from municipal wastewater across the United States. DOE also announced the selection of the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) to lead DOE’s Energy-Water Desalination Hub, an early stage R&D consortia focused on desalination technologies. This FOA seeks to leverage these investments to further develop technologies for advanced water resource recovery systems.

Questions regarding the FOA must be submitted to AMOWaterFOA@ee.doe.gov

Answers to the questions will be posted to an excel spreadsheet found in the annoucement Documents section of the FOA posting.

EERE Exchange is designed to enforce the deadlines specified in this FOA. The “Apply” and “Submit” buttons will automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. Should applicants experience problems with EERE Exchange, the following information may be helpful.

Applicants that experience issues with submission PRIOR to the FOA deadline: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist applicants in resolving issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in late submissions: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties so severe that they are unable to submit their application by the deadline, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist the applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing submission on behalf of and with the applicant’s concurrence). Please note, network traffic is at its heaviest during the final hours and minutes prior to submittal deadline. Applicants who experience this during the final hours or minutes and are unsuccessful in uploading documents will not be able to use this process.

DE-FOA-0002358: Notice of Request for Information (RFI) on the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy’s in support of Battery Critical Materials Supply Chain R&D.

The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to challenges and opportunities in the upstream and midstream critical materials battery supply chains. EERE is specifically interested in information on raw minerals production and refining and processing of cathode materials including cobalt, lithium, and nickel. This RFI is being issued by DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), in collaboration with the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) and Vehicles Technologies Office (VTO).

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.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to BatteryCriticalMaterialsRFI@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on July 31, 2020. 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) or pdf attachment to the email, and no more than 10 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.

The Building Technologies Proving Ground – Public Sector Field Validation funding opportunity will invest up to $10 million to allow state, local, and tribal government entities to compete for funding designed to meet U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) goals via field validation of high impact commercial building technologies. Projects under this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will be funded by the EERE’s Building Technologies Office and administered in partnership with EERE’s Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs Office’s State Energy Program. The objective of this funding is to generate and disseminate data on the field performance of novel approaches to integrate advanced building technologies, that can inform commercial and multi-family building efficiency, demand flexibility, and building-to-grid programs. Projects funded through this FOA will have the potential to significantly reduce energy use in U.S. commercial buildings, develop new value streams for commercial building owners, and provide the end use flexibility required to dynamically balance the distribution grid.

An informational FOA webinar was held on June 30, 2020 at 12:00pm ET. The slides to the presentation are accessible in the Documents section of the FOA posting. 

Questions regarding the FOA must be submitted to BTOProvingGroundFOA@ee.doe.gov

Answers to the questions will be posted to an excel spreadsheet found in the annoucement Documents section of the FOA posting.

EERE Exchange is designed to enforce the deadlines specified in this FOA. The “Apply” and “Submit” buttons will automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. Should applicants experience problems with EERE Exchange, the following information may be helpful.

Applicants that experience issues with submission PRIOR to the FOA deadline: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist applicants in resolving issues.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in late submissions: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties so severe that they are unable to submit their application by the deadline, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist the applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing submission on behalf of and with the applicant’s concurrence). Please note, network traffic is at its heaviest during the final hours and minutes prior to submittal deadline. Applicants who experience this during the final hours or minutes and are unsuccessful in uploading documents will not be able to use this process.