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["ADMINISTRATIVE QUESTION AND ANSWER LOG"]
["DE-FOA-00003308 - SMALL INNOVATIVE PROJECTS IN SOLAR: CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER AND PHOTOVOLTAIC (SIPS: CSP & PV) - ANNUAL\n"]
["Question #","Date Submitted","Topic","Question","Answer"]
[1,"2024-01-19","Foreign Entities/Work","Is funding opportunity DE-FOA-0003308, Small Innovative Projects in Solar open to NGOs in Guatemala?","Please refer to the Edibility Information of the FOA.  Specifically, refer to Section III.A.ii, Foreign Entities."]
[2,"2024-01-19","Eligibility","Can a new non-profit quality to apply.","Please refer to the Edibility Information of the FOA.  Specifically, refer to Section III.A.i, Domestic Entities."]
[3,"2024-01-16","Technical Topics","Would developing a direct energy conversion of concentrated solar to air conditioning (no photovoltaics) be within the scope of this solicitation?","If the process in driven entirely by solar heat this would be within scope of the FOA."]
[4,"2024-01-22","Eligibility","I have been looking at reengineering my home that was built in 1943 and using solar and Propane and rewiring the facility to take the new technology. Is this grant capable of doing this?","Please refer to the Edibility Information of the FOA.  Specifically, refer to Section III.A.i, Domestic Entities."]
[5,"2024-01-22","Technical Topics","Can this FOA be applied to the costs of becoming certified in solar energy installation?","Please refer to Section I.B, Topic Areas of the FOA."]
[6,"2024-01-23","Technical Topics","We have a project which is called’ ‘\"Optimization of Agrivoltaics for Year-Round Production’\".  We are looking funding for it. I wonder Is it suitable for funding this announcement? ","Please refer to Section I.B, Topic Areas of the FOA."]
[7,"2024-01-23","Other","So I also give abstract about it. below. Would you discuss with us  its suitability for this grant?","Please refer to the Elibility Information of the FOA"]
[8,"2024-02-03","Other","The SIPS FOA requires the use of Calibri font, however, this font is licensed for use with Microsoft Windows. Many of us use Linux systems and latex, where the use of this font is not allowed due to the license. Is there a remedy for this or can we use some other font? ","The use of an alternate font is permissable as long as the font is easy to read and doesn’t provide more words per page than using Calibri.  "]
[9,"2024-02-05","Other","Budget Justification workbook – this is provided as a download with the FOA, however, the FOA does not mention providing this attachment as part of the proposal submission. Will the budget justification workbook be required for this proposal? ","The Budget Justification workbook is required for the proposal."]
[10,"2024-02-05","Other","Locations of Work – this component is listed as a required attachment in the table on page 29 of the FOA, however, there is no download of this form available with the FOA or a description of how to fill this out within the body of the FOA","Please refer to Full Application Submission Files for this document in Exchange."]
[11,"2024-02-05","Technical Topics","We would like to know whether this computational aspect is in the focus on this FOA? Or is this FOA looking for development/implementation of physical system/technology? ","Optimization of CSP control is within the scope of the SIPS FOA. "]
[12,"2024-02-08","Other","We have a novel module encapsulation technology for increased longevity. Does that fit the scope of this FOA?  Are projects related to encapsulation encouraged under this FOA?","Encapsulation of PV modules could be responsive to the FOA."]
[13,"2024-02-12","Other","There is a budget worksheet question in the Q&A indicating that the budget justification worksheet is required. However, on the EERE eXCHANGE submission upload page there is no location to attach the budget worksheet. Would you please clarify how this document is to be attached to the submission?","It can be attached under other documents. "]
[14,"2024-02-13","Cost Sharing","For the purposes of the Cost Share Waiver, what counts as “performing project work” by the prime recipient?  Is it all funds spent by the prime that aren't sent to a sub-recipient, including procurements and contract labor?","Please refer to section III. B. Cost Sharing of the FOA. "]
[15,"2024-02-13","Technical Topics","Would the use of solar-thermal heat energy for cooling (water or air) via such a process be considered responsive to the topic “solar-thermal industrial process heat innovations?” ","The use of solar thermal energy storage for either electricity generation or cooling is within scope for SIPS"]
[16,"2024-02-15","Other","Can the technical volume be kept confidential and not available to the public or other agencies?","The Technical Volume is not shared publicly and only reviewed by DOE Staff and Merit Reviewers."]
[17,"2024-02-15","Other","Our water utility is exploring a project to put a floating solar array on our reservoir to power our drinking water treatment plant. As I read it, it looks like the Utility-scale PV installation, commissioning, and design for resilience area of the SIPS: CSP & PV grant (page 13 in the FOA) is not a good fit for a grant for the design or construction of a floating solar array.  Would you agree?  ","It needs to be a research project, not a demonstration project to be compliant. "]
[18,"2024-02-18","Other","Could this be used to build a mobile solar setup to help the community during power outages and to create educational training for others to use of YouTube? ","The question is not clear if this relates to PV or CSP. Applicants should propose some technical solutions addressing the topic areas."]
[19,"2024-02-19","Technical Topics","We are a small business developing a new process to produce solar wafers. We wanted to check whether this project is a good fit for FOA about \"Small Innovative Projects in Solar: Concentrating Solar Power and Photovoltaics (SIPS: PV)\".","Producing Solar Wafers is responsive to Topic Area 2."]
[20,"2024-02-20","Other","I wish to submit my application for this funding opportunity on behalf of my small business, however, it is somewhat obscure if my company complies with the requirements. We are a small business for - profit. Are we eligible to apply?","Please refer to Section III. Eligibility Information in the FOA."]
[21,"2024-02-19","Other","Page limit of the technical proposal. In page 28, 3rd bullet, it states that “reference must be included as footnotes or endnotes in a font size of 10 or larger. Footnotes or endnotes are counted toward the maximum page requirement”. However, the last item in the table in page 32,  it states that there is no page limit on References.","There is no cap on the reference pages. "]
[22,"2024-02-19","Other","Does a subrecipient require to provide a LOC if it doesn’t provide any cost share?","No, an LOC is not required if the subrecipient isn't providing Cost Share."]
[23,"2024-02-19","Other","DOE Work Proposal for FFRDC, (see DOE O 412.1A, Attachment 2): Please confirm if the attached document is what NREL needs to provide to for this submission.","Please refer to Section III. i. Requirements for DOE/NNSA FFRDCs Listed as the Applicant"]
[24,"2024-02-19","Other","Please confirm if detailed budget is required for this submission.","Budget Justifications from the Prime and Sub-Recipient will be requested of an applicant post-selection. These documents are listed amongst the documents that may be requested post selection under Section IV. D. Post Selection Information Requests."]
[25,"2023-02-19","Other","I am writing you to determine whether the application (DE-FOA-0003308: SMALL INNOVATIVE PROJECTS IN SOLAR: CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER AND PHOTOVOLTAICS (SIPS: CSP & PV) – ANNUAL) is subject to the state intergovernmental review process (by state under executive order 12372 process)?","Per the FOA 'This FOA is not subject to Executive Order 12372 – Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs.'"]
[26,"2024-02-20","Other","Is the funding for Solar projects applicable to citizens of the US only or do you accept applications from international countries as well?","Please refer to Section III. Eligibility Information in the FOA."]
[27,"2024-02-20","Other","My question is whether, as the Principal Investigator, I am also required to write the LOCs.","Please refer to Section IV. v. Letters of Commitment"]
[28,"2024-02-20","Cost Sharing","For the waiver, what kind of verification do you need from our institution. Can it be a letter from the Dean or contract officer meeting the qualification below? ","Please refer to Section III. B. Cost Sharing "]
[29,"2024-02-21","Other","For the budget in the FAQ page, it says your portal has \"other documents\" where we can upload the budget justification. However, there is not a section in your portal to upload. How should we proceed?","Exchange has been updated."]
[30,"2024-02-21","Due Dates","According to the announcement, the expected duration for the SIPS:PV project is 12 months. However, to achieve the project's objectives, it needs to span two winter cycles. Can the timeline be 18 months to include these cycles, beginning in October?","Please refer to Section II. ii. Period of Performance of the FOA. "]
[31,"2024-02-22","Application Content/Format","The link to the SOPO document was located on page 30 of the FOA and directed us to: https://www.energy.gov/eere/funding/eere-funding-application-and-management-forms. I am emailing because this document is not included in the technical requirements on page 32,nor is it listed in the proposal doc on page 29, and the portal does not have an attachment for this doc. Can you address if this doc is needed and if so where do we upload to the portal, there is not \"other doc\" section to upload such doc for this doc and the budget justification.","The Statement of Project Objectives is not required for the application. "]
[32,"2024-02-26","Cost Sharing","Hi, if a project team is composed of 3 entities, all of whom are eligible for the cost share waiver, does the prime recipient still need to perform >50% of the work as measured by TPC?","Please refer to section III. B. Cost Sharing of the FOA. "]
[33,"2024-02-26","Other","If the applicant believes there is no potentially duplicative funding, is it sufficient to state “Applicant has reviewed all current funding and there is no potentially duplicative funding” as the content of the  Potentially Duplicative Funding Notice? Or must we declare all current funding and allow the reviewers to determine whether it is duplicative?  ","All current funding must be provided."]
[34,"2024-02-26","Other","While uploading documents into EERE, I noticed that the “Waiver Request” has an * beside it. We have no Waiver Request needed, what do we need to put in this area?","Applicants have the option to provide \"N/A\" or \"None\" if there is no waiver request."]
[35,"2024-02-26","Cost Sharing","We are an Institution of Higher Education and as prime recipients we are performing more than 50% of the project work. Do we need to provide a letter stating that we meet the Cost Share requirements to be 0%? ","Please refer to section B. Cost Sharing of the FOA."]
[36,"2024-02-26","Technical Topics","I was wondering if SETO would consider such technology as a distributed scale SIPH that can promote the deployment of CSP for hydrogen generation from ammonia.","Solar ammonia dissociation for SIPH application is responsive to the FOA if the author demonstrates advanced reactor compared to SOA and if successful, it will offer a clear path for CSP applications at scale."]
[37,"2024-02-27","Other","I am reaching out to see whether small businesses would qualify to apply for a Small Innovative Projects in Solar grant, or any other programs that you would recommend. How do you recommend me proceeding? ","Please refer to Section III. Eligibility Information in the FOA."]
[38,"2024-02-27","Other","Will you accept a LoC from a partner who will play an important role in the project without receiving funds?","Please refer to Section IV. v. Letters of Commitment in the FOA. "]
[39,"2024-02-27","Other","In the FAQ for DE-FOA-0003308, question 9 indicates the budget justification workbook is required at proposal and then indicated to be uploaded to other documents under question 13. Then, question 24 indicates a detailed budget is not required for submission. Can you confirm which is correct?","Please see question 24 above. "]
[40,"2024-02-27","Eligibility","My business is a small business registered with the SBA. I would like to know if my firm is eligible to apply as prime recipient?","Small Business Firms are not eligible to apply as prime recipients and can only be included as subrecipients on applications. Please refer to section III. A. i. Restricted Eligibility for additional information."]
[41,"2024-02-27","Other","I am interested in collaborating with a PI who will also be separately applying for this SIPS. I am wondering if the SIPS rules allow me to get a Letter of Commitment from him.","Please refer to Section IV. v. Letters of Commitment in the FOA. "]
[42,"2024-02-28","Cost Sharing","The Assistant Secretary for EERE has issued a Cost Share Reduction determination pursuant to Section 988(b)(3) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that is applicable to certain entities applying under this FOA. Specifically, recipient cost share requirement for applied research and development activities projects is reduced from 20% to 0% where: We are looking for clarification that the “applied” portion is applied research as opposed to fundamental and fundamental research would still require cost share, even if we met the qualifications of 1 and 2.","If the application indicates to perform CSP/PV research to address problem in CSP/PV topic area, by definition, this is applied research.   If the application proposes fundamental research, then this would not be responsive to the FOA."]
[43,"2024-02-28","Other","As a small business, we were unsure on how to file the application due to the restriction on small businesses not being allowed to be the prime recipient, and only sub recipients. Who is the prime recipient supposed to be in our case? "," Please refer to section III. A. i. Restricted Eligibility for additional information."]
[44,"2024-02-28","Cost Sharing","The lead applicant is an FFRDC who will perform 50% (or more) of the total project work, as confirmed by the Total Project Costs. Therefore, cost share is not applicable for the lead applicant (FFRDC). If we are a subcontractor in their project, does this exception flow down to us, thus we do not have a cost share commitment as well? ","Only Prime recipient are required to provide Cost Share."]
[45,"2024-02-29","Application Content/Format","Are FFRDCs required to submit a lobbying form under this call, although we do not participate in Lobbying activities?","All prime recipients and sub-recipients are required to submit this form."]
[46,"2024-03-01","Cost Sharing","Please confirm that as an institution of higher education, we do NOT need to include any cost share in our application. Once confirmed, please also let us know what documents (if any) we need to include as proof that we are eligible for the reduced recipient cost share.","As per the FOA Cost Share Wavier The Assistant Secretary for EERE has issued a Cost Share Reduction determination pursuant to Section 988(b)(3) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that is applicable to certain entities applying under this FOA. Specifically, recipient cost share requirement for applied research and development activities projects is reduced from 20% to 0% where: 1. The prime recipient is a (1) institution of higher education, (2) Minority Serving Institution (MSI), (3) Non-Profit Organization (NPO), and (4) Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), (5) state, local, and tribal government, and"]
[47,"2024-03-01","Other","“Locations of Work” is listed as a required document in the table on page 30 of the FOA. However, the FOA does not contain any explanation about what this document is. Also, there is no such form for download under “Full Application” on EERE Exchange.","The document should provide information on where the work is being performed. "]
[48,"2024-03-01","Other","In the FOA Q&A someone asked about the \"locations of work\" file and was told it is in the solicitation.  We do not find it there.  Where can we obtain this required file for the proposal application? ","It's under Full Application Submission Files number 13 Location(s) of work. "]
[49,"2024-03-02","Labs/FFRDCs","We have a faculty researcher who is planning to submit a proposal to the subject FOA. She would like to include NREL as a vendor to do tests at a quoted price. Is this allowable? If it is allowable, will she also need to provide: DOE Work Proposal for FFRDC, Authorization from cognizant Contracting Officer for FFRDC","Applicants can propose to use and FFRDC Lab as part of their application.  A Work Proposal, FFRDC, and  Authorization from cognizant Contracting Officer for FFRDC will need to be provided."]
[50,"2024-03-04","Other","I am trying to make a submission to this announcement, but it requires me to upload the “Waiver Requests” document as a mandatory document for successful submission. However, this document is not mandatory as described in the announcement. In my case, it is not required for me to submit it. Could you please look into this and guide on how to make the submission without uploading this document?","Please refer to question #34"]
[51,"2024-03-04","Other","There is a requirement for a “Locations of Work” document in .xlsx format. No such file exists for download on the website, and the FOA does not address the requirements for location that are to be divulged. Please clarify where that document may be obtained","Please refer to question #48."]
[52,"2024-03-04","Labs/FFRDCs","We have an FFRDC as a subaward on our proposal and the funding announcement requests the following 2 documents. I can’t seem to locate the “Work Proposal for an FFRDC” attachment.  Is this a required document?  Would you be able to provide me with any information on how to create the work proposal for an FFRDC file?","The Work Proposal is a required document that you would obtain from the potential FFRDC. "]
[53,"2024-03-04","Other","Can you please provide the excel template for the Location of Work document.","Please refer to question #48."]
[54,"2024-03-04","Other","Can you please advise if budget details are required with the submission? ","Please refer to question #9. This can be uploaded under other documents."]
[55,"2024-03-05","Other","Per the instructions in the FOA, we will need to submit two versions of the technical volume if there is confidential/proprietary information included. On previous opportunities where this is the case I have been instructed to submit the confidential version in Exchange and the non-confidential version via email; however, I see that there is a location for additional files in the exchange, so is this where the non-confidential version should be uploaded? Also, I just want to clarify that the confidential version is the one that will be reviewed? We will have to remove technical detail to make it non-proprietary which will weaken the proposal. ","Please refer to question #16."]
[56,"2024-06-05","Other","When can we expect to receive funding decisions on our proposals submitted in response to this FOA?","DOE anticipates announcing selections sometime in July."]
[57,"2024-06-06","Other","Dear SETO-SIPS representative, according to the table below from the SETO-SIPS website, notifications were supposed to be communicated in May 2024.  Has EERE made the selections already?","Please refer to question #56."]
[58,"2024-08-05","Other","Is there an update regarding when selections for DE-FOA-0003308 will be communicated to applicants?","DOE anticipates announcing selections sometime in early October."]

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["Pick List"]
[]
["Registration Requirements"]
["Webinar"]
["Concept Paper"]
["Eligibility"]
["Labs/FFRDCs"]
["Foreign Entities/Work"]
["Cost Sharing"]
["Due Dates"]
["Application Content/Format"]
["Intellectual Property"]
["Data Management"]
["Other"]
["U.S. Manufacturing Plan"]
["Application Reviews"]
["Technical Topics"]