Frequently Asked Questions

The discrepancy has been corrected on the eXCHANGE website. Letters of Intent are required and are due 6/9/11. Full applications are due 6/23/11.

Yes. In order to submit a Letter of Intent in the eXCHANGE system for DE-FOA0000520, you must click the action button that states "Create Concept Paper" after filling out your Letter of Intent required information.

The Subrecipient Award Budget & Justification thresholds apply to the entire project period.

The anticipated end-users include, but should not be limited to, project developers; local, state or federal permitting officials; and other interested stakeholders (e.g. environmental groups, local community or

ganizations, etc.).

For purposes of this FOA, utility-scale development refers to ground-mounted PV and CSP systems typically interconnected to the transmission (not distribution) system.  In order to meet those requirements, an installation should be a minimum of 1MW.

While the primary focus of this tool is not for wholesale distributed generation projects, if projects of that nature can be effectively included in the proposal, they will be considered.

No, proposals for separate topics under Topic 2 may be submitted in one consolidated application.

Section IV.C.4. Project Narrative File comprises all required items to be included in the Project Narrative (Cover Page, Project Objectives, Merit Review Criteria Discussion, Project Timetable, and Project Partners).  Anything submitted that is not included in the list of required items will be considered as optional.

Cost sharing is not required for applications submitted in response to this FOA.  However, the Selection Official may consider any cost share funds provided by the applicant when making selections for awards (see Section V.A.3 of the FOA). Under these circumstances, any provided cost share contributions are negotiable between the prime recipient and any subrecipients. 

Federal Financial Assistance provided by this Funding Opportunity Announcement will issued in the form of an Assistance Agreement, not a Contract (see section II.A of the FOA). Reimbursement of actual costs will only include those costs that are allowable and allocable to the project as determined in accordance with the applicable cost principles prescribed in 10 CFR 600.127, 10 CFR 600.222 or 10 CFR 600.317. In specific regards to Fee or Profit, no increment above actual costs may be paid to a recipient or subrecipient under a DOE Financial Assistance award or subaward. However, fee or profit may be paid to a contractor providing goods or services to the recipient or subrecipient of the Assistance Agreement.

For FOA DE-FOA0000520, the SF424R&R and PMC123 forms are not required. The SF424A and Budget Justification forms ARE required. The Budget Justification is not a form that is available in eXCHANGE, as you must create the budget justification spreadsheet yourself, following the Budget Justification File instructions outlined in the FOA in Appendix D.

If you would like to receive EERE news updates, you can subscribe to receive notifications at http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/subscribe.cfm, these typically include FOA releases. All Federal Grant information can be accessed at www.Grants.gov. 

Multiple applications that are submitted from a single company do not impact each other.  DOE will review each application that is submitted independently. As stated in Section I of the FOA, "Entities may participate in multiple applications under one or more Topic Areas with the following restrictions: 1) Separate applications must be submitted for separate Topic Areas; and 2) An eligible entity may participate on only one (1) application as the primary applicant, but is not limited as a sub-recipient under other entities’ Applications."

The Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is comprehensive and designed to allow prospective applicants to assess their proposed projects versus the requirements and criteria of the FOA.  DOE cannot predetermine the suitability or viability of a proposal in advance of the merit review process.  It is up to prospective applicants to review the requirements of the FOA and assess the merits of their proposed project to determine whether to submit an application as well as to which Topic Area the proposal is best suited. Applicants must identify a Topic Area for their proposal.

Applications to Topic Area 2 should address all Merit Review criteria in Section V.A of the FOA, which specifically addresses the degree/extent to which the Applicant demonstrates an awareness of existing technologies and efforts in these fields; the comprehensiveness of the applicant's description of existing industry and or government (federal, state, local) supported tools and agreements for leveraging and or utilizing those efforts; and the efficacy with which the Applicant identifies how its proposed project will provide improvement over, and/or continuation of these other solutions. The basis of determining the cost-reduction potential must come from the Applicant's understanding of existing processes (e.g. permitting, system design, project siting, interconnection, etc.) and the costs associated with those processes, tools and the extent to which the Applicant's proposed solutions reduce associated costs.

Costs should be estimated based on what the subrecipient believes the actual hourly rates will be.

 •     Register through the EERE eXCHANGE at http://eere.energy.gov/financing/exchange

•     Obtain a Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number at http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform

•     Register with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) at https://www.ccr.gov/

•     Register in FedConnect at https://www.fedconnect.net/; use “Register as a Vendor” link.   To create an organization account, your organization’s CCR MPIN is required

Please note that these registrations are not required in order to submit an application through the EERE eXCHANGE site; however, they are required to receive an award under this announcement.  Therefore, all potential applicants lacking a DUNS number, or not yet registered with CCR should complete those registrations as soon as possible, but they are not required to be completed by the letter of intent due date.

To report the percent of total work effort for each organization, the response should be based on the percent of dollars for each entity: prime recipient and subrecipient(s).  The prime recipient does not have to contribute more than 50% of the total work effort.

Please note that entities that do not meet the eligibility criterion listed under Section III, Eligibility Information, of the Funding Opportunity Announcement are not eligible to apply as the prime applicant.  However, entities not meeting this criterion are allowed as subrecipients to an eligible applicant provided that, in aggregate, not more than 20% of the total estimated DOE funding is provided to entities that do not meet the eligibility criteria.

Please refer to Section III.A, Eligible Applicants, in the FOA.  It is referenced here for your convenience:

An eligible applicant is 1) a legal entity established pursuant to United States Federal or State laws, with operations in the United States or its Territories or; 2) a foreign legal entity having a place of business in the United States or its Territories.  An eligible entity must be able to demonstrate that its use of DOE funds will be in the economic interests of the United States, including, for example; creation of domestic manufacturing capability; use of American products, materials or labor; payment of United States taxes; or United States technological advancements.  

Eligible applicants include but are not limited to: (1) institutions of higher education; (2) National Laboratories; (3) nonprofit and for-profit private entities; (4) State and local governments; (5) consortia of entities (1) through (4). If applying as a consortium, one member of the consortium that is an established legal entity must be designated as the lead applicant.

Entities that do not meet this eligibility criterion are not eligible to apply as the prime applicant.  However, entities not meeting this criterion are allowed as subrecipients to an eligible applicant provided that, in aggregate, not more than 20% of the total estimated DOE funding is provided to entities that do not meet the eligibility criteria.  

Nonprofit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995 are not eligible to apply or to be a subrecipient to an eligible applicant.

These registration requirements could take several weeks to process and are necessary in order for a potential applicant to receive an award under this announcement. Therefore, all potential applicants lacking a DUNS number, or not yet registered with CCR or FedConnect should complete those registrations as soon as possible. Applicants that do not have this requirement in place prior to September 1, 2011 may not receive an award under the announcement.

 At this time DOE does not plan to extend the Letter of Intent deadline for DE-FOA0000520.

As described in Section III.A. of the FOA document, If applying as a consortium, one member of the consortium that is an established legal entity must be designated as the lead applicant.

The control number is required as part of the application document naming scheme as outlined in Section IV.B. and C. of the FOA document. The control number is not required within the first page or body of any application document. 

For applicants who successfully submitted a Letter of Intent, FOA DE-FOA0000520 has now been enabled to accept full applications.

DOE is not seeking to build a new Utility Rate Database.  Under this sub-topic area, DOE seeks an applicant to enhance the availability of the Utility Rate information in the existing Utility Rates Database hosted on DOE’s OpenEI wiki so that it may better support solar project development and evaluation efforts.  The successful applicant will propose a methodology for collecting and entering updated data at appropriate intervals, including appropriate quality control measures. 

NREL is not restricted from applying to this Funding Opportunity. Furthermore, forming a team with a federal agency or National Laboratory is not a requirement of this Funding Opportunity.

The Full Application Submission Deadline for this FOA is 6/23/2011 11:59 PM ET. At this time, DOE does not anticipate extending this submission date.

All questions related to this FOA must be submitted to  nhbos@go.doe.gov and should be submitted not later than 3 calendar days prior to the full application due date.  Questions submitted after that date may not allow the Government sufficient time to respond.  All answers to questions will be posted on the eXCHANGE website under this FOA.  Applicants are encouraged to review the posted questions and answers daily. No individual discussions will be held with potential applicants concerning this FOA.

Prime Applicants and Subrecipients have two options.  Applicants can sign confidentiality agreements with Subcontractors/Team Members, stating they will maintain the confidential information (i.e. salary and indirect rate information) in a confidential manner, and only share the information with the Department of Energy. 

The second option is that the subcontractors can submit this information directly to the question mailbox for each FOA, if necessary.  However, we will need a letter from the Prime Applicant to give the Subcontractor permission to submit the information separately and give the Department of Energy permission to speak to the Subcontractor directly should we have any questions.

The preferred format for the Budget Justification that accompanies the SF424A is Excel format. This should assist in providing the associated calculations to justify the costs proposed in each Object Class Category/Cost Classification Category as specified in Section IV.C. of the FOA document.

The correct individual to address Letters of Commitment to is:

Lalida Crawford

Contracting Officer, US Department of Energy

Golden Field Office

1617 Cole Blvd. Golden, CO  80401

However, all Letters of Commitment that are directed to DOE and follow the requirements detailed in Section IV.C. of the FOA document will be accepted. 

The completion of the PMC 123.1 Budget Justification form is not a required application document. However, it will suffice for the Budget Justification application document requirement.

DOE does not have a required or example template spreadsheet for the Budget Justification application requirement. The Budget Justification is not a form that is available in eXCHANGE, as you must create the budget justification spreadsheet yourself. Please follow the Budget Justification File instructions outlined in the FOA in Appendix D.

As stated in Section IV.C.4 of the FOA document, the project narrative must not exceed 20 pages for Topic areas (1), (2), or (3).  This page count includes cover page, table of contents, charts, graphs, maps, photographs, and other pictorial presentations, when printed using standard 8.5” by 11” paper with 1 inch margins (top, bottom, left, and right), single spaced.  EVALUATORS WILL REVIEW ONLY THE NUMBER OF PAGES SPECIFIED ABOVE. Additional appendices or additional content included in the Letters of Commitment appendix will not be reviewed or evaluated.    

Multiple Subrecipient budget files can be uploaded as a New Additional File, under Additional Files in the Upload and Submit tab. 

Please refer to Section I. Funding Opportunity Description, Section IV.C. Content and Form of Application, and Section V. Application Review Information of the FOA document for specific details on what to include in the Project Narrative File. Successful applications will intimately address the FOA Scope as outlined in these Sections. DOE will not specifically advise a potential applicant on the technical content of an application beyond what is contained in the FOA document.   

As stated in Section IV.C.4. of the FOA Document, The project narrative must not exceed 20 pages for Topic areas (1), (2), or (3). Thus the Project Narrative cannot exceed 20 pages for a single topic area.  

For all sub-topics, applicants should estimate to the best of their abilities the cost reduction potential of the proposed activities as it relates to the use of open-source solutions. Applicants retain the flexibility to utilize the methods they deem most appropriate, including considerations for performance such as Application Programming Interface (API) rate limitations depending on the authorization method being used and whether the method itself requires authentications.

DOE has recently enabled additional files to be uploaded into eXCHANGE, please retry the referenced action.

Per the Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE-FOA-0000520), Applicants must have submitted a Letter of Intent by the due date (June 9, 2011) to be eligible to submit a Full Application.  Please refer to Grants.gov and the EERE Exchange website for information about future financial assistance opportunities.

The DOE does not intend to release any public project specific information regarding awardees via the EERE eXCHANGE website. The public announcement can be read at http://energy.gov/articles/department-energy-awards-more-145-million-advanced-solar-technologies.

All successful applicants have been notified of selection for this Funding Opportunity. Unfortunately, if you have not been contacted, you did not receive an award. All unsuccessful applicants will formally notified shortly.

 All successful applicants have been notified of selection for this Funding Opportunity. Unfortunately, if you have not been contacted, you did not receive an award. All unsuccessful applicants will formally notified shortly.

The successful applications will not be made publicly viewable through any DOE controlled website. The only way to access award proposals is through a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA). To learn more about and submit a FOIA request, please visit http://energy.gov/management/office-management/operational-management/freedom-information-act.