EERE Funding Opportunities

Modification 0001: The purpose of this modification is to modify the first full paragraph on page 6, to include the fourth "particularly attractive market for desalination technologies": industrial processes.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) seeks to fund applied scientific research that develops novel technologies or concepts using solar thermal energy to assist in the desalination process, which will reduce the levelized cost of water (LCOW) through reducing the levelized cost of heat (LCOH), increasing the energy efficiency for thermal desalination processes, and reducing the overall capital and integration costs for solar thermal desalination. Applications for thermal desalination include municipality water production, agriculture, industrial processes, and produced waters from the oil and gas industry. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA), intends to support the research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of technologies that have the potential to integrate solar thermal technologies into desalination processes, develop novel low temperature solar concentrators and storage, consider novel and innovative thermal desalination technologies, or show how solar thermal energy can be implemented into current or upcoming desalination methods. As part of the SunShot Initiative, this applied research and development program is intended to demonstrate new concepts in either solar thermal or thermal desalination technologies, or the combination therein. These developments should lead to subsequent system integration, engineering scale-up, and eventual commercial production for water purification applications.

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 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 EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators 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 theApplicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the helpdesk for assistance; and c) has submitted the application through eXCHANGE within 24 hours of the FOA's posted deadline.

An Informational Webinar was held on Thursday, October 12. To view the webinar slides and transcript, please download DE-FOA-0001778 Informational Webinar Slides and DE-FOA-0001778 Informational Webinar Transcript from the "Documents" section below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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