Through its Planning and Local Technical Assistance programs, EDA assists eligible recipients in developing economic development plans and studies designed to build capacity and guide the economic prosperity and resiliency of an area or region. The Planning program helps support organizations, including District Organizations, Indian Tribes, and other eligible recipients, with Short Term and State Planning investments designed to guide the eventual creation and retention of high-quality jobs, particularly for the unemployed and underemployed in the Nation’s most economically distressed regions. Applications are accepted on a continuing basis and processed as received. This Planning and Local Technical Assistance opportunity will remain in effect until superseded by a future announcement.

This Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) funding opportunity provides support for rural and remote communities to build clean energy projects that benefit their communities. Applicants must propose projects that support at least one of these eligible activities:

• Improving overall cost-effectiveness of energy generation, transmission, or distribution systems;
• Siting or upgrading transmission and distribution lines;
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy generation in rural or remote areas;
• Providing or modernizing electric generation facilities;
• Developing microgrids; and
• Increasing energy efficiency.

OCED has announced a new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for pilot-scale projects that has a separate streamlined submission process from the DOE’s traditional SBIR/STTR program. The Pilot-scale Rapid Operational Validation of key Energy Infrastructure Technologies (PROVE IT) program supports the validation of existing pilot projects or subsystems in a relevant industrial environment to increase their technology readiness to the point of being able to be integrated in a large clean energy infrastructure project and increase their adoption readiness level to medium/high. Applicants can be awarded up to $4.3 million under two topic areas: point source carbon capture and long-duration energy storage.

Through the three phases of the prize, teams have the chance to win part of the $8.42 million prize pool to fund their ongoing activities that address local challenges in clean energy, energy efficiency, manufacturing, materials, and transportation. Successful competitors will demonstrate a strong track record of building trust and strengthening relationships and partnerships within their communities. The Community Energy Innovation Prize is made up of three tracks, each with distinct focus areas, over three phases:

• Clean Energy Ecosystem Track.
• Manufacturing Ecosystem Track.
• Vehicles Ecosystem Track.

The CSCI is pleased to be able to provide grants to climate adaptation professionals to create or advance a climate resilience plan or project in collaboration with a community that is on the front lines of the climate crisis. The community should be represented in the application and effort by a community-based organization and a local, regional or Tribal government entity, as defined below. The proposed work can cover any step in the Steps to Resilience framework, and can be a new or ongoing collaboration.  The funds can be used for a range of activities depending on the needs of the community, including climate vulnerability and risk analyses, planning processes, community engagement, project prioritization, and/or the implementation of projects.

The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program makes federal funds available to states, U.S. territories, federally recognized tribal governments , and local governments for hazard mitigation activities. It does so recognizing the growing hazards associated with climate change , and the need for natural hazard risk mitigation activities that promote climate adaptation and resilience with respect to those hazards. These include both acute extreme weather events and chronic stressors which have been observed and are expected to increase in intensity and frequency in the future. The BRIC program’s guiding principles include supporting communities through capability and capacity-building; encouraging and enabling innovation, including multi-hazard resilience or nature-based solutions including the use of native plants; promoting partnerships; enabling large, systems-based projects; maintaining flexibility; and providing consistency. Through these efforts communities are able to better understand disaster risk and vulnerabilities, conduct community-driven resilience, hazard mitigation planning, and design transformational projects and programs.

Pre-development grants of up to $300,000 will be awarded over the course of multiple application rounds. The first round of Climate United NEXT grants will support clean energy projects in Native communities and will be open to non-profit organizations, state and local government entities, Indian tribes, and Institutions of Higher Education (IHE).  In 2025, Climate United will have additional rounds focused on other underserved market segments.

The goal of the Program is to provide potential applicants with flexible and comprehensive pathways to spur the development of commercial DAC facilities, including DAC facilities at mid- to large-scale along with supporting infrastructure, and expand to Regional DAC Hubs. The Program seeks to realize the potential of the diverse DAC technologies that have achieved or are approaching commercial readiness, while addressing the most critical obstacles to their adoption and scaling.

DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) is issuing this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), in collaboration with the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) and National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), for integrated carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) projects that demonstrate substantial improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness, cost, and environmental performance of carbon capture technologies for power, industrial, and other commercial applications. The overarching goal of this NOFO is to unlock a wave of follow-on investment in low-carbon power and low-carbon industrial products by increasing the capital flow to sectors where it is already occurring and by expanding the CCUS market to additional power, industrial, and commercial applications.

The Building Upgrades Inspiring Local Transformation (BUILT Nonprofits) funding opportunity will support nonprofit building improvement projects that reduce energy use, lower carbon emissions, and generate short and long-term energy cost saving so that operational dollars can be redirected toward mission-critical work. Eligible nonprofit participants are 501(c)(3) organizations who own and operate their own buildings.

This opportunity is designed to reduce risks for deployments, increase the potential for commercial adoption through longer-duration demonstrations (expected to last six months to two years), and offer additional benefits to help quickly advance WECs. This includes the ability to identify and mature high-potential WEC technologies, reduce financial risks for developers and incentivize investors, progress technologies at smaller scales while developing toward utility scale, and increase learning for installation, operations, and maintenance.

This FY25 Industry Partnership Call aims to mobilize and deploy the knowledge, tools, and capabilities developed by FCIC partner laboratories to address real-world challenges in the bioenergy and bioproduct industries. The consortium possesses extensive expertise in all areas of the lignocellulosic and advanced feedstock supply chain, from biomass harvest through conversion. The Industry Partnership Call will have three topic areas. Topic Area 1 is intended to partner industry stakeholders with one or more FCIC partner national laboratories via a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). Projects in Topic Area 2 are intended to provide rapid technical assistance to an industry stakeholder from one FCIC partner national laboratory with relevant capabilities. Topic Area 3 focuses on supporting current pilot, demonstration, or commercial scale biorefineries with process design or operational troubleshooting support from one or more FCIC partner national laboratories.