The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) invites input from the public regarding a potential funding opportunity to advance the readiness of technologies intended to reduce mortality of bats, eagles, or other wildlife at operational wind turbines or wind facilities. EERE in particular seeks input on the current state of wildlife impact mitigation and minimization technologies, conditions under which technology vendors or developers would consider participating in a campaign to field test and validate their technologies, and the conditions under which wind farm owner/operators would consider hosting field testing and validation activities at their operational facilities. Finally, EERE seeks input on a proposed framework for conducting both technology field testing and validation activities and focused research and development (R&D) to advance wildlife impact minimization technologies towards commercialization, and on how to prioritize funding for research within this framework.
The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather feedback from stakeholders prior to DOE potentially issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). This RFI is not a FOA; therefore, DOE is not accepting applications at this time. Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to WindMitigationRFI@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00PM ET on July 25, 2014. Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx or .doc) attachment to the email, of no more than 10 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted. EERE will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses.