Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and other federal funding announcements

The Minnesota Department of Commerce is seeking to work with and facilitate connections with local and Tribal governments, utilities, businesses, communities and other entities interested in energy-related partnerships. Funding opportunities outlined below are offered through the federal funding opportunities, including those funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).?

Informational webinars on grant basics for potential applicants to Grid Resilience funding opportunities

Commerce will host two informational seminars for entities thinking of applying to one or more of the IIJA Grid Resilience funding opportunities and who want to better understand the processes involved.? Interested parties can choose to attend a session on one of two dates. Each session will explain the process differences in applying to the State Energy Office for a share of grant funds that will be allocated to the State versus applying directly to a federal agency as part of a competitive grant funding opportunity. The session will cover "How to read a FOA", and, for those potentially applying directly to the federal government, the discussion will cover things applicants can be doing now to prepare for the opening of the funding opportunities. Time will be reserved for audience questions and discussion.?

Interested parties can choose to attend one of the two times below.? Registration links to receive meeting invites are linked below.? ? ?

Friday, September 30th, 10:00 -11:30 am
Tuesday, October 4th, 1:30-3:00 pm

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 Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA). More information can be found on the Commerce IIJA web page or by clicking the links below.

--Open IIJA Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA):

40205 and 41003(b) Rare Earth Element Demonstration Facility?
- Informational Webinar: 1:00-2:00 pm CDT October 13, 2022?
- Full Application?Due Date: November 21, 2022, 7:00 pm CST.
- DE-FOA-0002618;?CFDA Number: 81.089
- RFI published in February 2022: DE-FOA-0002686

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) has issued a FOA to support increasing the domestic supply of rare earth minerals? IIJA appropriated? t appropriations of $156 million for the design, construction, and operation of a Rare?Earth Element (REE) Demonstration Facility that demonstrates the extraction, separation and refining?from unconventional feedstock materials to high purity individual or binary rare earth metals (REM)?and/or critical minerals and materials (CMM).

This FOA seeks applications from?academic institutions acting as the Prime Applicant for a Phase I Front-End Engineering Design?(FEED) study and a Phase II design, construction, and operation of a first-of-a-kind (FOAK),?domestic, demonstration facility that produces REEs and CMM from domestic resources that?include unconventional and secondary sources, such as acid mine drainage, mine waste, or?other deleterious material.

Watch DOE's Rare Earth Element Demonstration Facility web page for posting of the webinar link.

--Non-IIJA Funding Opportunity Announcements

Exploratory?Topics (Low-Energy Nuclear?Reactions) SBIR - STTR?
- Full Application?Due Date: November 15th, 2022, 8:30 am CST.
- DE-FOA-0002785;?CFDA Number: 81.131 (SBIR/STTR Announcement)
- DE-FOA-0002784; CFDA Number 81.131 (Topic A Announcement)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) has opened a Small Business Innovation Research / Small Business Technology Transfer cycle.? This announcement is purposely broad in scope, and will cover a wide range of topics to encourage the submission of the most innovative and unconventional ideas in energy technology. The objective of this solicitation is to support high-risk R&D leading to the development of potentially disruptive new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications. Topics under this FOA will explore new areas of technology development that, if successful, could establish new program areas for ARPA-E, or complement the current portfolio of ARPA-E programs.?This funding opportunity will be left open and additional topics added as amendments in the future.? The first topic announced for funding is Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions (see topic A DE-FOA-0002784 link above).

Also see FedConnect July 2022 RFI announcing a teaming partner list for this topic.?

Resources

Consumer resources explaining Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) incentives?

Federal Website communicating IRA incentive information
- The CleanEnergy.gov website was launched last week to help users navigate upcoming IRA incentives.? The web-site allows users to find tax credits or rebates by activity (i.e. adding residential solar or heat-pumps, undertaking energy efficiency or weatherization measures, buying an electric vehicle, etc.) and displays the incentives available in 2022 versus those that will be available in 2023 under IRA. (Note: some IRA tax credit allowances have already gone into effect.)
Solar Tax Guide for Homeowners?
- DOE?s Homeowner?s Guide to the Federal Tax Credit for Solar PV now includes changes Congress made in August. If you?re planning to go solar, or have already done so in 2022, here?s some good news: the tax credit you?ll receive just increased. The newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act expands the federal tax credit for solar energy, also known as the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), to 30% of the solar energy system?s value. That will stay in place until 2033, when it will begin to taper down until it ends in 2035.? The four-page residential solar fact sheet has been updated; a commercial solar ITC fact sheet is also available.?
Fact Sheet on impacts of IRA to Minnesota
- Fact sheets have been released highlighting how the Inflation Reduction Act tackles the climate crisis in states across the country and how families and communities can benefit from a clean energy future. Read the fact sheet for Minnesota?to find out how families can save on their utility bills, get tax credits for electric vehicles and energy-saving appliances, and access the economic opportunities of the clean energy future.

Other Resources

DOE Announces $1 Million in Prizes for Communities Adopting SolarApp+
- Application?and letter of support due November 4th, 2022 at 2pm CDT.

The U.S Department of Energy Solar Energy Technology's Office (SETO) launched the SolarAPP+ Prize, a million-dollar prize program designed to accelerate the adoption of SolarAPP+, an online platform that instantly issues permits for code-compliant residential solar photovoltaic systems. Local governments that successfully adopt SolarAPP+ by April 27, 2023 can receive a $15,000 cash prize.

SolarAPP+ is a platform that reduces one of the major bottleneck for residential solar installations,? speeding timelines by easing the permitting process. To date, SolarAPP+ has approved over 9,500 projects and saved more than 9,500 hours in plan review time. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's report on SolarApp+ performance, projects are permitted and inspected about two weeks faster, given that permits are issued instantly for code-compliant systems.

DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) webinar: Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) solar research incentives

Join SETO for a webinar designed for SETO awardees and members of the solar energy research community: ?Reaching for the Solar Future: How the Inflation Reduction Act Impacts Solar Deployment and Expands Manufacturing".? IRA-updated incentives for solar deployment and domestic solar manufacturing will be addressed, and also highlight the IRA?s broader implications for SETO?s Solar Futures Study analysis, which modeled the deployment of solar necessary for a decarbonized grid by 2035.

- Tuesday, September 27th, 1 p.m. CDT.

-? Register

Get ready to apply to federal funding opportunities

?As of April 4th, 2022, entities doing business with the federal government (including grant applicants responding to a federal funding opportunities) are required to be registered in the System for Award Management found at SAM.gov, and to have a Unique Entity Identification, or UEI.? UEI's are created by registering in SAM.gov. Registration in SAM.gov is free.

Follow this?guidance?if you don't know if your entity is registered in SAM.gov.?Entities that were registered in SAM.gov, with either active or in-active registrations, prior to April 4th, 2022, have had a UEI assigned to their file. This transition to using a UEI rather than a DUNS number allows the federal government to streamline the entity identification and validation process, making it easier and less burdensome for entities to do business with the federal government.

For additional information, read the?Quick Start Guide for registering an entity in SAM.gov. (Note: Display issues have been noted when trying to the guidance documents linked above when trying to? to access via the Chrome browser. If the guidance articles do not show by clicking on them above, copy the link address and paste it into a different browser such as Firefox.)

Ask us! The MN Commerce Department is your partner for IIJA? energy-specific funding opportunities

Interested in partnering with the Department of Commerce around funding opportunities? Have questions? Send an email, detailing the program, your organization and contact information to IIJA Initiatives Project Manager, Kellye Rose:?[email protected].

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