Transmission Acceleration Grants (TAG) will support State and Tribal efforts to accelerate and improve transmission siting and permitting and strengthen transmission planning for critical transmission lines (100 kV or greater) in any area of the country. Eligible participants are State or Tribal entities, or entities working with them such as regional transmission planning organizations, regional-state committees, or not-for-profit organizations. The TAG Program is making $10 million in funding available at this time.
The Joint Assessment of Resilience in Vulnerable Infrastructure Systems (JARVIS) Opportunity will provide funding to utilities to deploy advanced technologies and incorporate modeling to identify and mitigate grid vulnerabilities, enabling greater integration across diverse energy portfolios. Eligible applicants are utilities and partner technical assistance providers (which includes companies/entities, research institutions, consulting firms, technology companies, for-profit and non-profit organizations). JARVIS will provide awards of approximately $1M each and is making $35 million currently available.
The Solar Training and Education for Professionals: Enabling Informed Consumer Choice (STEP-EICC) opportunity will support the delivery of tailored outreach, education, and training of professionals to enable informed consumer choice within populations that face barriers to accessing solar energy. Eligible performers are multi-stakeholder teams consisting of solar energy experts and organizations focused on education, community engagement, or service delivery that have well-established, trusted relationships with and commitment to serving such populations. This opportunity will provide around 5-8 awards of approximately $350,000 - $500,000 each.
The Building Access to Tribal Energy Resilience (BAxTER) funding opportunity will support building tribal partnerships, and improving energy reliability and affordability through networking activities, tribal energy resilience project development, and tribal workforce development. Eligible participants include energy experts in small businesses, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions. The BAxTER program anticipates making $4 million in funding available to 5-10 selected organizations.
Capital flow is a critical commercialization risk area driven in part by issues around technology insurability. Through better understanding of existing insurance market gaps and risks of energy infrastructure projects, additional investment capital can be unlocked to enable commercial liftoff of new energy technologies. As part of the Market Research for Innovating New Strategies for Underwriting Risk in Energy Infrastructure Technologies project, TechWerx will engage industry stakeholders to identify promising technology insurability solutions, facilitate matchmaking across relevant market sectors, and plan follow on actions to advance new strategies for underwriting risk in energy infrastructure technologies.
The Apprenticeship Utilization Technical Assistance Program will support the piloting, analysis, and stakeholder education of practices to increase the utilization of registered apprentices in utility energy programs. Eligible performers providing technical assistance (TA) may include organizations with expertise in apprenticeship utilization and/or utility energy program implementation, whereas performers receiving TA may include utilities and state utility commissions committed to piloting apprenticeship utilization practices. Approximately 2-5 awards of $150,000-$300,000 each will be made.
The Clean Energy Careers for All (CEC4A) opportunity will support workforce development programming that broadens participation and engages individuals from many different groups within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in ways that promote interest in careers that support the nation’s transition to clean energy. Eligible participants are non-profit 501(c)(3) or non-lobbying 501(c)(6) educational organizations, including engineering, scientific, and technical societies that can reach across various levels of future workforce populations. CEC4A will provide up to 10 awards of ~$300,000 each.
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. BUILT Nonprofits will provide awards of up to $100k each. The program requires a 20% cost-share.
The State of Industrial Control System Cybersecurity Training opportunity will support market research to better understand the current and future industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) cybersecurity workforce landscape and needs. The program will focus on three efforts: defining the state of workforce development and training, understanding workforce needs and pipeline, and informing the development of a cybersecurity workforce strategic plan. Approximately $160k will be funded through 1-2 awards.
The Connected Communities Data Opportunity will support the collection and analysis of existing pilot program data focused on validating grid-edge technical measures and innovative planning strategies as viable strategies for efficient infrastructure investment. Ideal candidates will have both proven capacity to deliver quality, insightful analysis and have existing access to data of interest. Selected awardees are anticipated to each receive around a $1,000,000 award with no required cost share.