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August 12, 2024
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other state and federal funding announcements
The Minnesota Department of Commerce seeks to work with and facilitate connections with local and Tribal governments, utilities, businesses, communities and other entities interested in energy-related partnerships. The opportunities outlined below are funded by the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other state and federal programs.
Announcements
Statewide Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan: Round 2 of NEVI Grants - Informational Meetings
Join the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) for an informational session about a unique opportunity to install electric vehicle charging stations. MNDOT is offering to reimburse up to 90% of eligible project costs with grants through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program using a combination of state and federal funds. This grant round is anticipated to open in fall 2024. These sessions will include a short presentation, time for questions and answers, and networking with others interested in the electric vehicle industry.
What Participants will Learn
- How businesses can benefit from offering electric vehicle charging
- What the process is to apply for NEVI grant funds
- What the requirements and expectations are of the program
- How to partner with other knowledgeable providers to be successful
Dates & Times
The following in-person sessions have been scheduled in key interest areas of the state. Space is limited, so please register for the location nearest you, however registration is not required.
Registration for in-Person Sessions
- August 27 – Rochester
- 2:00 to 4:00 PM
- MnDOT District 6 Headquarters 2900 48th St. NW
- September 4 – Faribault
- 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
- Faribault Chamber of Commerce 530 Wilson Ave NW
- September 5 – St. Paul
- 2:00 to 4:00 PM
- American Lung Association 490 Concordia Ave
- September 5 – Fergus Falls
- 2:00 to 4:00 PM
- Otter Tail County Government Services Center 500 W Fir Ave
- September 10 – Worthington
- 1:00 to 3:00 PM
- JBS Field House 700 2nd Ave
Virtual Session
EV Infrastructure Needs Assessment Survey
MNDOT is beginning outreach efforts to learn more about what Minnesotans want for EV infrastructure after the Alternative Fuel Corridor stations. A survey will assist MNDOT in gaining insight on possible locations and additional priorities that can help in the selection process. The survey is available in English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali. The survey will be open through August 16.
Learn More and Take the Survey
Energy-related Funding Awards to Minnesota Entities
Read on to learn more about the most recent innovative Minnesota energy projects (listed by Funding Opportunity Program), and the funding they have been awarded. Congratulations to all the recipients!
The DOE 2024 Housing Innovation Award
As part of its Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program, the U.S. Department of Energy recognizes leading builders who are delivering better homes to Americans across the country. The DOE Housing Innovation Awards are made to those builders who are spurring the housing industry to construct more efficient, healthy, and resilient homes certified to the DOE ZERH program requirements. The DOE ZERH program represents the federal government’s most stringent above-code voluntary program for high-performance homes.
EPA Community Change Grants (Inflation Reduction Act)
The first cohort of Community Change Grants have been chosen to help disadvantaged communities address environmental and climate justice challenges through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity.
- Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association, Inc. (MTERA)
Statutory Partner: GRID Alternatives
Application Name: Improving Tribal Access to Energy Efficiency and Weatherization Infrastructure for Midwest Tribes
Location: Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota
TIA Category: Tribes in the Continental United States (TIA B)
Summary: Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association and GRID Alternatives will work with 35 federally recognized Tribes to support energy efficiency and weatherization upgrades in homes to improve indoor air quality and lower energy costs. They will invest in leadership development training for Tribal Energy Champions to build their Tribes' capacity to access additional funding sources and implement projects to strengthen climate resilience and reduce pollution.
The Community Change Grants Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), administered through the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, is accepting applications on a rolling basis through November 21, 2024.
EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Implementation Grants (CPRG)
The EPA’s CPRG has awarded $4.3 billion to state, local and Tribal entities for community-driven solutions to the climate crisis, reduction of air pollution, advancement of environmental justice, and accelerating the US clean energy transition.
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Minnesota Pollution Control Agency -was awarded $200 million for the Minnesota Climate-Smart Food Systems project. This project aims to improve the health and well-being of all Minnesotans through food system decarbonization. Funding for this project will support peatland restoration, climate-smart agriculture, energy efficiency, vehicle and equipment electrification, low-global warming potential refrigerants, and food waste prevention efforts.
Communities Local Energy Action Program (Communities LEAP)
DOE has announced the second cohort of 30 communities selected as part of the Communities Local Energy Action Program (Communities LEAP), a unique technical assistance initiative designed to help disadvantaged communities take direct control of their clean energy future. Communities will receive technical assistance to create tailored community-wide action plans that reduce local air pollution, increase energy resilience, lower utility costs and energy burdens, and create good paying jobs.
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Brainerd - Clean Energy Planning and Development; Energy Efficient Buildings and Beneficial Electrification Planning
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Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa - Clean Energy Planning and Development; Community Resilience Microgrids
Recent and Expected Federal Funding Activity
The federal government issues a variety of announcements related to federal funding opportunities: Requests for Information (RFI), Notices of Intent (NOI) and energy Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA). More information can be found on the Commerce Federal Funding Opportunities web page or by clicking the links below.
To facilitate a quick review of this newsletter, the subject matter of included items is previewed here; full details can be found in the body of the newsletter.
Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA), Administrative and Legal Requirements Document (ALRD), Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), Requests for Applications (RFA)
- Bipartisan Infrastructure Law § 40302 – Clean Fuels & Products Shot: Supporting Carbon Utilization Products via Electrochemical Conversion and Refinery and Petrochemical Facilities Retrofitting
- Bipartisan Infrastructure Law § 40534 and 40207(f)(3) - Smart Manufacturing and Recycling Tactics for States (SMART)
- Connected Communities 2.0: Innovations to Manage Growing Transportation, Building, and Industrial Loads to the Grid
- Offshore Wind National and Regional Research and Development
- Critical Facility Energy Resilience (CiFER)
- Smart Manufacturing Technologies for Material and Process Innovation
- FY 2024 Vehicle Technologies Office Batteries FOA
Tribal Governments Funding Opportunities & Items of Interest
- Tribal Clean Energy Planning and Development 2025 – NOTICE OF INTENT
- Tribal Colleges and Universities Planning for Clean Energy Transition 2025 – NOTICE OF INTENT
Notice of Intent
- Oceans of Opportunity: U.S. Wave Energy Open Water Testing
Request for Information (RFI)
- Residential Wood Heater In-Situ Testing RFI
- Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP) RFI
Prizes/Awards
- Minority Serving Institutions Contract Readiness Prize
- Good Jobs in Clean Energy Prize
Technical Assistance
- Clean Bus Planning Awards
Webinars
- Equitable Solar Workforce Development Community Convening Webinar
- Social Perceptions: Offshore Wind Energy Development and the Environment
- Considering Communities in Industrial Decarbonization: Opportunities to Advance DEIA, Energy Equity, and Workforce in Industrial Decarbonization Research and Development Projects
- Explore the Public EV Charging Infrastructure Playbook
- Agrivoltaics: Solar and Farmland Have Mutual Benefits
- i2X Solution E-xchanges
- i2X Forum for the Implementation of Reliability Standards for Transmission (i2X FIRST)
Workshops, Meetings, Conferences
- Critical Materials Collaborative Workshop
- Virtual Workshop on the Impacts of Energy, Equity, and Environmental Justice on Decarbonizing the Industrial Sector
Publications/Videos/Webpages
- Rooftop Solar Consumer Protections Recommendations
- Recommended Best Practices for Community Solar Consumer Protection
- Rural Energy Resource Guide
- DOE Sustainable Aviation Fuel State-of-Industry Report
- Public EV Charging Infrastructure Playbook Update
- Homeowner’s Guide to the Federal Tax Credit for Solar Photovoltaics
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IIJA Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA)
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Bipartisan Infrastructure Law § 40302 – Clean Fuels & Products Shot: Supporting Carbon Utilization Products via Electrochemical Conversion and Refinery and Petrochemical Facilities Retrofitting
DOEs Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management seeks applications to address carbon conversion challenges across two areas: engineering-scale electrochemical conversion with a focus on system durability and feasibility studies for refinery, and petrochemical facility retrofits. There are two topic areas:
Topic Area 1: Engineering-Scale Testing of Electrochemical Systems for the Conversion CO2 into Value-Added Products - with approximately $12 million in Federal funding and a 20% cost share requirement.
Topic Area 2: Feasibility Studies for Retrofitting of Refineries and Petrochemical Facilities for Carbon Conversion – has Federal funding of approximately $4 million and a 20% cost share.
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Bipartisan Infrastructure Law § 40534 and 40207(f)(3) - Smart Manufacturing and Recycling Tactics for States (SMART)
The DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains is releasing this FOA to provide funding to access smart manufacturing technologies and high-performance computing resources for small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs); and the recycling of batteries and battery-containing devices to support the establishment of a domestic critical material supply chain for electric vehicle batteries. There are two Areas of Interest:
Area of Interest 1: State Manufacturing Leadership Program - For States to establish or expand programs to assist small- and medium-sized manufacturers in accessing and implementing smart manufacturing technologies and practices and accessing high-performance computing resources. This Area of Interest will provide $63 million over two to five years and will have a 23.1% cost share.
Area of Interest 2: For States and units of local government to establish or enhance battery collection, recycling, and reprocessing to support a domestic battery and critical materials supply chain. This Area of Interest will provide $41 million and has a 50% cost share.
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Other Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA)
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Connected Communities 2.0: Innovations to Manage Growing Transportation, Building, and Industrial Loads to the Grid
- DE-FOA-0003136
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Deadlines: Concept Paper: August 20, 2024 | Application: October 10, 2024
DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has created this FOA to address major new loads from transportation, industry, and buildings on the electric grid by providing new tools for users, planners, and operators of the electric grid. This FOA has two major topical areas:
- Connected Communities 2.0, focused on technical measures at the grid edge in buildings, industry, and transportation to prepare the electric grid for these new loads, and improve the resilience of customers and the grid; and
- Smart Charge Management (SCM), focused on various unique urban, suburban, and rural use cases to build confidence in SCM as an effective approach for electric vehicles (EVs) to provide flexibility and value to the electric grid.
This FOA will support research, development, and demonstration at the grid edge – the portion of the electric grid between the feeder and the plug – to evaluate how to right size future electricity infrastructure using various technical measures, which can also improve customer benefits and grid resilience. Grid edge technical measures include a wide range of technologies such as low power appliances, managed EV charging, demand-flexible building systems, thermal energy networks with energy storage, batteries, and rooftop solar.
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Offshore Wind National and Regional Research and Development
- DE-FOA-0003334
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Deadlines: Concept Paper: September 3, 2024 | Application: November 7, 2024
DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is issuing this FOA on behalf of the Wind Energy Technologies Office. This FOA has six Topic Areas:
Topic Area 1: Floating Offshore Wind Platform Research and Development ($20 million)
Topic Area 2: Innovation for Fixed-Bottom Offshore Wind Foundation Types and Supporting Infrastructure ($7.5 million)
Topic Area 3: Technology Advancement to Inform Risk to Birds and Bats from Offshore Wind Energy ($8 million)
Topic Area 4: Development of a Manufacturing and Supply Chain Offshore Wind Consortium in the Great Lakes Region ($5 million)
Topic Area 5: Floating Offshore Wind Center of Excellence ($3.8 million)
Topic Area 6: Protecting the Future Offshore Wind Fleet Against Lightning ($4.3 million)
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Critical Facility Energy Resilience (CiFER)
DOE’s Office of Electricity has released this FOA in support of large-scale deployment of innovative storage technologies at host sites containing critical infrastructure to support demonstration of promising technologies and validate their ability to provide resiliency benefits. The outcomes for CiFER include, but are not limited to:
- Demonstrate the benefits of an innovative energy storage technology being used in the field to the large energy storage end-user and potential investor ecosystem.
- Identify a host site that has a compelling need for a dependable supply of energy based on potential impact if the site were not able to maintain normal operations during a grid outage or other emergency event.
- Learn from industry and community stakeholders the type of criteria they consider are crucial for “validation” of a new technology. Can consider these criteria for defining validation objectives for future strategy and activities.
- Conduct analysis on the value of resiliency provided by the energy storage system and use or develop valuation methods could be leveraged by other that are considering similar projects.
- Disseminate results and methods used for quantifying value of energy resiliency to broad set of stakeholders interested in resiliency solutions.
- Demonstrations that that provide community benefits and address workforce considerations.
- Willingness to participate in Rapid Operational Validation Initiative (ROVI) data sharing program with national labs.
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Smart Manufacturing Technologies for Material and Process Innovation
- DE-FOA-0003329
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Deadlines: Concept Paper: August 22, 2024 | Application: November 18, 2024
This $33 million FOA is issued by the DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office and seeks applications for the development of smart manufacturing priorities which address major end-use industrial opportunities for smart manufacturing in the energy sector. AMMTO’s primary pillars of smart manufacturing include: (1) Enhance Product Quality, (2) Support Process Innovation, (3) Accelerate Materials Development, (4) Enable Materials Circularity, (5) Drive Asset Optimization and (6) Increase Workforce Readiness. This FOA has four topic areas.
Topic Area 1: Smart Manufacturing for a Circular Economy
Topic Area 2: Smart Manufacturing of Tooling and Equipment for Sustainable Transportation
Topic Area 3: Smart Manufacturing for High Performance Materials
Topic Area 4: Smart Manufacturing for Sustainable and Competitive U.S. Mining
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FY 2024 Vehicle Technologies Office Batteries FOA
- DE-FOA-0003383
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Deadlines: Concept Paper: September 9, 2024 | Application: October 30, 2024
DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy on behalf of the Vehicle Technologies Office is issuing this $43 million FOA for projects that will advance research, development, demonstration, and deployment in several areas critical to the future of advanced batteries. The funding will drive innovations in low-cost electric vehicle battery electrode, cell, or pack manufacturing; improve battery safety and reduce cascading failures; and strengthen the domestic supply chain of inexpensive and abundant battery materials. This funding is aligned with strategies detailed in the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization by advancing battery technologies that can power safe and efficient zero-emission EVs. Topic Areas of Interest include:
Topic Area 1: Improved 12-volt lead acid batteries for safety-critical electric vehicle applications
Topic Area 2: Develop vehicle or structural level strategies to reduce the likelihood of the cascading effects of electric vehicle fires
Topic Area 3: Battery electrode, cell, and pack manufacturing cost reduction
Topic Area 4: Silicone-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries
Topic Area 5: High energy density conversion cathodes
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Tribal Government Funding Opportunities & Items of Interest
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Tribal Clean Energy Planning and Development 2025 – NOTICE OF INTENT
The DOE’s Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs (Office of Indian Energy) intends to issue this FOA for the following Areas of Interest:
Area of Interest 1: Conduct tribal clean energy planning
Area of Interest 2: Comprehensively assess the feasibility and viability of deploying clean energy technology on Tribal Lands
Area of Interest 3: Conduct clean energy project design and development activities for deployment on Tribal Buildings or Tribal Lands
DOE's Office of Indian Energy anticipates making approximately $25 million available with awards that range from $100,000 to $2,500,000 depending on the Area of Interest. It is anticipated that the FOA will be issued in late summer 2024.
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Tribal Colleges and Universities Planning for Clean Energy Transition 2025 – NOTICE OF INTENT
The DOE’s Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs (Office of Indian Energy) intends to issue this FOA for eligible Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) to continue its efforts to advance Tribal energy sovereignty and maximize the deployment of clean, reliable, affordable and local energy solutions. In support of these objectives, the DOE Office of Indian Energy intends to provide financial support to Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) to plan the transition of their campuses to clean energy.
Under the planned FOA, DOE’s Office of Indian Energy anticipates making approximately $5 million available with awards that range from $100,000 to $250,000 for planning grants. It is anticipated that the FOA will be issued in late summer 2024.
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Notice of Intent (NOI)
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Oceans of Opportunity: U.S. Wave Energy Open Water Testing
DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Water Power Technologies Office, a FOA entitled “Oceans of Opportunity: U.S. Wave Energy Open Water Testing”. It is anticipated this FOA will utilize a stage-gated approach designed to reduce risks for deployments, increase the potential for commercial adoption, and offer additional benefits to help quickly advance wave energy converters (WECs). This includes the ability to identify and mature high-potential WEC technologies, reduce financial risks for developers and incentivize investors, progress technologies at a smaller scale while developing toward utility scale, and increase learning for installation, operations, and maintenance. The following Topic Areas are anticipated:
Topic Area 1: Distributed Scale Open Water Testing and System Validation
Topic Area 2: Community Scale Open Water Testing and System Validation
Topic Area 3: Utility Scale Open Water Testing and System Validation
EERE plans to issue the FOA on or about September 2024 with a tentative funding amount of $112.5 million.
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Request for Information
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Residential Wood Heater In-Situ Testing RFI
The DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office is soliciting feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues and considerations related to testing residential wood stoves in-situ to enable the development of cleaner, more efficient wood heaters. The planned in-situ field data collection effort will monitor wood heater performance in operation by the homeowner rather than an imposed duty cycle in a laboratory environment. EERE is specifically interested in input in identifying the most important parameters to measure, considerations of in-situ test design, data collection methods, operator behavior, and other input surrounding in-situ testing.
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Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP) RFI
LEEP is a two-year fellowship program to train the next generation of clean tech entrepreneurs to develop and commercialize game-changing technologies for a clean energy future. This RFI seeks feedback from National Laboratories, industry, academia, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues regarding how the DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) can best evolve LEEP to increase the program’s reach, interconnectedness, and impact. This RFI aims to gather input in three ways. First, to collect concepts on how an entity—possibly a National Lab acting as a “lead lab” or a private sector partner working with participating labs—would perform some of the core program operations in a cost-effective manner while achieving an appropriate balance between central coordination and freedom for participating National Labs to benefit and adapt to their local environments. Second, AMMTO is also seeking input on how the program can better execute the core program operations from entities currently active in the clean energy innovation space who may not necessarily seek to do such work directly with LEEP but nevertheless have insights to share. Finally, AMMTO is seeking input on other ways the program can better connect to innovation to achieve its goals.
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Prizes/Awards
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Minority Serving Institutions Contract Readiness Prize
The DOE aims to increase equity in contracting with Historically Black Colleges, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and other Minority Serving Institutions (MSI), including Asian American, Native American, Pacific Islander Serving Institutions, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Predominantly Black Institutions. Up to 25 winners will be awarded a minimum of $10,000 based on their institution's size. To win the MSI Contract Readiness Prize, competitors will need to show they have increased their level of contract readiness. Teams will show this by developing a clear plan of action describing the steps taken to improve their contract readiness.
A successful submission should include, but is not limited to:
~ Attending technical trainings on the federal contracting application process
~ Participating in mentoring opportunities with external partners such as the Power Connectors, DOE Mentor Protégé Program, or other partners
~ Providing information on how you will continue to train and develop staff, students, and other resources to respond to federal contract deliverables for your institution
~ Teams will be required to provide letters of support from their external partners.
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Good Jobs in Clean Energy Prize
The Good Jobs in Clean Energy Prize encourages building new and newly focused placed-based coalitions to create quality, accessible jobs and training partnerships in their community. Each coalition is required to include, at a minimum, one coalition representative from each of the five key stakeholder groups below:
- Labor organizations
- Clean energy employers
- Community-based organizations
- Public agencies
- Education and workforce providers
These competing coalitions will develop and implement Coalition Action Plans that improve the quality of and expand access to good jobs in clean energy. Coalitions must compete and win in Phase One of the prize to qualify to compete in Phase Two and Phase Three of the prize. Fifteen Phase One awardees will receive $50,000 for demonstrating robust partnerships focused on a specific clean energy employment opportunity.
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Technical Assistance
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Clean Bus Planning Awards
Funded by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, the Clean Bus Planning Awards program reduces barriers to zero-emission bus deployment by providing school and transit bus fleets with free technical assistance to develop comprehensive and customized fleet electrification transition plans.
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Webinars
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Equitable Solar Workforce Development Community Convening Webinar
- August 15, 2024 | 12:30 PM CT | Register
The Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy as a lead organization to support equitable workforce development practices within the solar industry. To advance the objectives of the national Equitable Solar Workforce Communities of Practice, MREA and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council's National Clean Energy Workforce Alliance are hosting a virtual community-wide convening to engage stakeholders in exploring a draft solar workforce landscape review and gap analysis and showcase real-life examples of workforce development programs.
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Social Perceptions: Offshore Wind Energy Development and the Environment
- August 21, 2024 | 12:00 PM CT | Register
The DOE’s Offshore Wind Synthesis of Environmental Research will present panelists to discuss how perceptions of offshore wind’s environmental effects shape public opinion and community engagement, and how to best communicate environmental information to the public.
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Considering Communities in Industrial Decarbonization: Opportunities to Advance DEIA, Energy Equity, and Workforce in Industrial Decarbonization Research and Development Projects
- August 26, 2024 | 12:00 PM CT | Register
DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office offers this webinar as a high-level discussion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), energy equity and environmental justice (EEEJ), workforce, and community engagement needs in industrial decarbonization. Topics will include an overview of DEIA, EEEJ, and workforce opportunities along the industrial decarbonization innovation pipeline, EEEJ considerations in R&D projects, and strategies and best practices for community engagement.
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Explore the Public EV Charging Infrastructure Playbook
The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) Program, will host a webinar showcasing the latest set of modules designed to help communities, planning organizations, local and state governments, Tribal Nations, and other decision makers navigate important considerations when planning and deploying EV charging infrastructure.
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Agrivoltaics: Solar and Farmland Have Mutual Benefits
As solar energy increases, so does opportunities for farmers to benefit by gaining access to new revenue streams while also maintaining land for grazing, wildlife, or other uses. Zoning expert Brian Ross from the Great Plains Institute will provide an overview of best practices and common solutions around planning, zoning, and incentives for agrivoltaics and large-scale solar.
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i2X Solution E-xchanges
- September 19, 2024 | 1:00 PM CT | Promoting Economic Efficiency in Interconnection
- October 24, 2024 | 1:00 PM CT | Enhancing Interconnection Processes
- December 3, 2024 | 1:00 PM CT | Interconnection Reliability Assessment Models and Tools
- Register
i2X is hosting a series of virtual meetings to facilitate open dialogue among diverse stakeholders across the U.S. electricity ecosystem on important interconnection issues in distribution and transmission grid networks and their interaction. During Solution e-Xchange meetings, the i2X team facilitates discussions on interconnection challenges, knowledge gaps, and practical solutions.
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i2X Forum for the Implementation of Reliability Standards for Transmission (i2X FIRST)
- August 20, 2024 | 10:00 AM CT
- September 24, 2024 | 10:00 AM CT
- November 26, 2024 | 10:00 AM CT
- December 17, 2024 | 10:00 AM CT
- January 28, 2025 | 10:00 AM CT
- February 25, 2025 | 10:00 AM CT
- Register
DOE is launching the Forum for the Implementation of Reliability Standards for Transmission (i2X FIRST) to facilitate the adoption of new and recently updated standards relevant for interconnected clean energy resources like solar and wind energy. The Forum will convene industry stakeholders to enable easier and more harmonized implementation of these interconnection standards.
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Workshops/Meetings/Conferences
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Critical Materials Collaborative Workshop - Virtual
The DOE’s Critical Materials Collaborative (CMC) is seeking input on its Research Roadmap on Critical Materials for 2025-2035. This roadmap will help inform the next decade of research, development, and deployment (RD&D) needed to develop secure domestic critical materials supply chains for the clean energy transition.
During the workshop participants can provide a brief presentation and/or share views on the most important research areas to spur secure domestic supplies of critical materials. DOE is especially interested in suggestions for benchmarks, targets, or quantitative goals for critical materials RD&D. The information provided will help shape research directions and national priorities. Broad areas being considered for future DOE RD&D include:
~ Identification of Domestic and Secure Sources of Critical Materials
~ Advanced Primary Critical Material Recovery (New Mining Methods)
~ Enhanced Processing, Refining, and Separations
~ Materials – Alternative and Substitute Materials
~ Sensors, Field Detectors, and Analytical Methods
~ Computational Chemistry, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence
~ Circular Economy
~ Improved Manufacturing
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Virtual Workshop on the Impacts of Energy, Equity, and Environmental Justice on Decarbonizing the Industrial Sector
- August 27, 2024 | 12:00 PM CT | Register
DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office will focus this workshop on Energy, Equity, and Environmental considerations for decarbonizing industry. This workshop will explore strategies to better integrate these considerations into decarbonization decision making and the criteria, metrics, and targets to evaluate societal impacts of different pathways. This workshop is a follow-on to the Transforming Industry: Strategies for Decarbonization Workshop hosted by DOE, held in May 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. During the workshop, DOE will present an overview of the vision study, including the framing, approach, and preliminary conclusions.
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Publications/Videos/Webpages
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Rooftop Solar Consumer Protections Recommendations
Considering increasing consumer complaints about rooftop solar, the National Consumer Law Center has released this document which provides policy suggestions to address problems and risks consumers may face with rooftop solar agreements.
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Recommended Best Practices for Community Solar Consumer Protection
The Coalition for Community Solar Access has developed this document to ensure consumer protections are maintained while creating a competitive market for community solar. The document outlines best practices for stakeholder engagement, registration requirements, and market transparency to balance consumer protection with the community solar market.
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Rural Energy Resource Guide
The USDA has published this guide to allow rural communities to find federal funding for clean energy, including those made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act.
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DOE Sustainable Aviation Fuel State-of-Industry Report
DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in partnership with the Bioenergy Technologies Office has released the first two parts of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) State-of-Industry Report.
Part 1 - State of SAF Production Process - This segment of the report is designed to address broad challenges facing the bioenergy industry when producing SAF and is not specific to any single feedstock or production pathway.
Part 2 - Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids Pathway - specifically focuses on evaluating the current supply chain for the Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) pathway. This segment of the report looks at potential obstacles that could hinder the commercial production and use of SAF from these facilities.
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Public EV Charging Infrastructure Playbook Update
The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation has released an update of the Public EV Charging Infrastructure Playbook. The new version offers activities, videos, and resources on:
~ Policies and incentives
~ Regulations for zoning, codes, and permitting
~ Procurement, ownership, and operation
~ Revenue and fee structures
The new modules complement existing information on planning, community engagement, site identification, deployment strategies, and charging costs and funding.
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Homeowner’s Guide to the Federal Tax Credit for Solar Photovoltaics
The DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office has developed a user-friendly overview of the tax credit that homeowners can claim for solar PV system costs.
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Energy-specific funding opportunities, Commerce is here for you
The Minnesota Department of Commerce seeks to work with and facilitate connections with local and Tribal governments, utilities, businesses, communities and other entities interested in energy-related partnerships. The opportunities outlined here are funded by the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and other federal and state energy programs. Interested in partnering with Commerce on funding opportunities or have questions? Stay updated by clicking subscribe below and e-mail us at [email protected].
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