Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) offers peer-learning cohorts to advance local clean energy goals. Cohorts are funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and managed by NREL with support from the World Resources Institute. Peer-learning cohorts are multi-community engagements that convene regularly for approximately 6 months to exchange strategies and best practices, learn in a collaborative environment, and workshop policy or program proposals, action plans, or strategies to overcome challenges around a common clean energy transition topic.

The Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), conducts consistent interactions with Tribes who are members of the Nuclear Energy Tribal Working Group (NETWG). The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to fund a cooperative agreement that engages tribal government leaders and representatives on issues and activities involving the topics for which NE has responsibility such as advanced reactors, siting an interim storage and/or disposal facility for spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste, transportation of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, cultural resource management, STEM education, environmental justice, etc.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law authorized DOE to provide $75 million in incentive payments for Section 243: Hydroelectric Efficiency Improvement Incentives Program. Owners or operators of existing hydroelectric facilities, including pumped storage hydropower, may apply for funding to make capital improvements that can improve their efficiency by at least 3%. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law states that payments shall not exceed 30% of the costs of the applicable capital improvement. A single qualified hydroelectric facility, including pumped storage hydropower, may only receive one incentive payment from this program within a single fiscal year, and that payment shall not exceed $5 million.

The hydroelectric production incentive payments are a benefit available for electric energy generation and sold for a specified 10-year period as authorized under the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, DOE received $125 million to support this hydroelectric production incentive. At this time, DOE is accepting applications from owners and authorized operators of qualified hydroelectric facilities for hydroelectricity generated and sold in calendar years 2021 and 2022.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Competitive Program will award $8.8 million to local governments, state-recognized tribes, or teams of these communities. EECBG Program recipients can use the funding for a wide variety of projects that lower energy costs, reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, and reduce overall energy use.

The program provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses for renewable energy systems or to make energy efficiency improvements. Agricultural producers may also apply for new energy efficient equipment and new system loans for agricultural production and processing. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) has been provided over $2 billion for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvement grants for agricultural producers and rural small business owners through 2031. Rural Development is accepting applications for six quarterly competitions with the following deadlines:

• June 30, 2023
• September 30, 2023
• December 31, 2023
• March 31, 2024
• June 30, 2024
• September 30, 2024

The Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mine Land will demonstrate the technical and economic viability of deploying clean energy on current (operating) and former (abandoned or inactive) mine land. Up to five clean energy projects will be carried out in geographically diverse regions, at least two of which must be solar projects. These demonstration projects are expected to be replicable, providing knowledge and experience that catalyze the next generation of clean energy on mine land projects.

This program will support all U.S. states, including Washington, D.C. and U.S. territories, in accelerating the deployment of smart manufacturing technologies by SMMs by providing financial assistance to SMMs to implement smart manufacturing technologies and practices and broaden access to high-performance computing resources. With this funding, states and territories will be able to create new programming or build on existing programs that provide technical assistance to SMMs. Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals for funding that cover initiatives such as, but not limited to:

• Promoting the benefits of smart manufacturing technologies among SMMs based on national and regional economic development and supply chain priorities;
• Identifying and providing financial assistance to facilitate SMMs’ access to and implementation of smart manufacturing and high-performance computing resources and technologies; and
• Securing partnerships with labor unions and other stakeholders to expand and diversify the smart manufacturing talent pool and develop, promote, and scale adoption of smart manufacturing training.

The Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program (CFI Program) is a new competitive grant program created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to strategically deploy publicly accessible electric vehicle charging and alternative fueling infrastructure in the places people live and work – urban and rural areas alike – in addition to along designated Alternative Fuel Corridors (AFCs). CFI Program investments will make modern and sustainable infrastructure accessible to all drivers of electric, hydrogen, propane, and natural gas vehicles. This program provides two funding categories of grants: (1) Community Charging and Fueling Grants (Community Program); and (2) Alternative Fuel Corridor Grants (Corridor Program).

Through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program, NREL offers in-depth technical partnerships that support communities in developing secure, reliable, resilient, and affordable clean energy systems. These partnerships offer teams—composed of local government, community-based organizations, and electric utilities and other key organizations that can represent the community—the chance to work alongside national laboratory staff as they apply robust modeling and analysis tools and conduct hardware-in-the-loop testing of solutions adapted to the community’s unique conditions and contexts. Two to three C2C in-depth partnerships will focus on clean energy topics. There will also be two Energyshed in-depth partnerships: one focused on a rural community and one focused on a metropolitan community.

The Industrial Demonstrations Program will fund projects that focus on the highest emitting and hardest to abate industries where decarbonization technologies can have the greatest impact: iron and steel, cement and concrete, chemicals and refining, food and beverage, paper and forest products, aluminum, other energy-intensive manufacturing industries and cross-cutting technologies. Widespread demonstration and deployment of projects within these industries will support President Biden’s initiative to rebuild U.S. leadership in manufacturing as countries, companies, and consumers around the world shift to low- to no-carbon commodities to meet their own decarbonization goals.

Through this FOA, DOE makes available up to $820 million of federal funding at a maximum of 70% federal cost share for up to ten (10) carbon capture large-scale pilot projects designed to further the development of transformational technologies that capture carbon emissions from existing coal or natural gas electric generation facilities and existing industrial facilities not purposed for electric generation. These carbon capture large-scale pilot projects must be integrated with commercial plant operations and conducted in the United States. DOE may issue additional carbon capture large-scale pilot FOAs in the future. Using multiple FOAs can help enable the validation of transformational carbon capture technologies with different maturation timelines in a large-scale pilot project once they reach the appropriate technology readiness level.