Wilson Sonsini is pleased to share our February 2024 update to the Clean Energy and Climate Solutions Federal Funding Database. This month, the database features funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), notices of intent (NOIs), requests for information (RFIs), and information for a variety of opportunities, including:

• FOA—FY24 Energy and Emissions Intensive Industries—The Department of Energy's (DOE’s) Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) issued an FOA focusing on subsector-specific decarbonization approaches for the highest emitting and most challenging to address industrial subsectors. The Energy- and Emissions-Intensive Industries (EEII) program within the IEDO focuses on improving efficiency and decarbonizing industries with the largest energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Together, these industries account for over 65 percent of the U.S. and global industrial manufacturing emissions, and products from these industries are inputs to other subsectors. Therefore, decarbonizing these industries will have both significant immediate impacts on manufacturing overall and far-reaching impacts on supply chains in many areas of the economy.

  This FOA will build on prior IEDO efforts and complements current IEDO funding for research, development, and prototype or pilot-scale technology validation and demonstration activities. Awards will be given in six Topic Areas (TA):

  • TA 1—Decarbonizing Chemicals and Fuel
  • TA 2—Decarbonizing Iron and Steel
  • TA 3—Decarbonizing Food and Beverage Products
  • TA 4—Decarbonizing Cement/Concrete/Asphalt Pavements/Glass
  • TA 5—Decarbonizing Forest Products
  • TA 6—Innovative Industrial preliminary front-end engineering ("Pre-FEED") Studies. 

  Approximately $83 million of total funding is available, including $71 million for TA 1 to TA 5 that will allow for multiple tiers of funding depending on the research state including pilot demonstrations, and $12 million specifically for TA 6 supporting only Pre-FEED projects.

  Mandatory Concept Papers are due on March 19, 2024, and full applications are due on June 11, 2024.

• FOA—Carbon Negative Shot Pilots—The DOE, through multiple offices, intends to issue multiple funding opportunities and prizes associated with the Carbon Negative Shot (CNS) program. This program aims to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it at gigaton scale for less than $100/net metric ton of carbon dioxide-equivalent, a cost including monitoring, reporting, verification (MRV), and storage by 2032. DE-FOA-0003082 initializes a strategy to coordinate funding opportunities across Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) pathways, technology readiness levels, and the DOE offices and programs for existing available funds as well as any future funding.

  This FOA has four Areas of Interest (AOIs):

  • AOI-1—Small Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS) Pilots, supporting integrated pilot-scale testing of BiCRS or conversion with appropriate MRV. BiCRS feedstocks for AOI-1 must be sustainably produced and not interfere with food crops, other land uses, or water resources, and minimize ecological impact. Pilot-scale testing for AOI-1 is defined as pilot facilities with the design capacity to capture and remove at least 1,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year (CO2e), and successful applicants will test their integrated biomass CDR technology, at pilot-scale, for at least 500 hours of continuous operation.
  • AOI-2—Small Mineralization Pilots, supporting enhanced mineralization pilots that demonstrate the potential to leverage alkaline materials and accelerated weathering techniques to hasten the rate of CO2 storage in ex-situ or surficial contexts. Pilot-scale testing for AOI-2 is defined as pilot facilities with the design capacity to remove at least 1,000 metric tons of CO2e per year. Successful applicants will test their integrated enhanced mineralization technology, at pilot-scale, for at least 1,000 hours of continuous operation.
  • AOI-3—Multi-Pathway CDR Testbed Facilities, supporting CDR testbed facilities suitable for evaluating, developing, and integrating multiple CDR pathways across different ecosystems, climates, and communities. Testbeds should demonstrate capacity to accommodate and enhance the testing of several CDR pathways with common infrastructure, interdisciplinary assessment, and commercialization support. The DOE is seeking applications from entities with existing CDR testbed facilities seeking to expand current capabilities to simultaneously test and integrate multiple CDR technology pathways at scales ranging from 1 – 1,000 metric tons of  CO2e per year under relevant and variable environmental conditions. The successful applicants will test their multi-pathway CDR testbed facilities for at least 1,000 hours of continuous operation.
  • AOI-4—Small Marine CDR Pilots, the objective of AOI-4 is to support integrated marine CDR pilot projects, in lab, closed-system, and representative field pilot environments, to demonstrate the feasibility, cost, and scalability of both biotic and abiotic ocean-based approaches, including direct ocean capture of CO2, ocean alkalinity enhancement (mineral and electrochemical), and micro- and macroalgae-based pathways. Applications are not being sought under AOI-4 at this time but are anticipated to be solicited under future amendments to the FOA. 

  A total of $100 million in funding is available across AOIs 1-3. Applications are due on April 16, 2024. Additional FOAs will be announced for both AOI-4 as well as for separate topics under ongoing CNS efforts.

• FOA—Catalyzing Innovative Research for Circular Use of Long-Lived Advanced Rechargeables (CIRCULAR)—The DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E) issued an FOA, "Catalyzing Innovative Research for Circular Use of Long-Lived Advanced Rechargeables,” (CIRCULAR) to provide funding for the creation of a circular EV battery supply chain that will reduce material use, redesign materials/products/services to be less resource intensive, and recapture "waste" as a resource to manufacturer new materials and products.

  The CIRCULAR program is structured into four distinct technical categories:

  • Category A focuses on materials, designs, and regeneration strategies that can be implemented at the battery cell level for the purpose of extending service life.
  • Category B focuses on innovations at the battery pack level including new materials, designs, and reversible manufacturing techniques to facilitate pack disassembly and recovery of manufacturing value (including increased autonomous robotic disassembly).
  • Category C prioritizes the development and integration of advanced sensing technologies capable of monitoring the health of individual cells, associated data analytics, and battery intelligence systems to extend the service life of cells, modules, and packs.
  • Category D focuses on analytical tools to assess the economic benefits of the technologies developed in Categories A, B, and C, including their impact on GHG and overall material consumption per unit of energy delivered over the lifetimes of battery cells and packs. 

  ARPA-E expects $30 million to be available for approximately 10-15 awards. Mandatory Concept Papers are due on March 12, 2024, and the deadline for full applications will be announced in the near future.

• NOI—IRA: Methane Emissions Reductions from Oil and Gas Wells—The DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory intends to issue an FOA on behalf of the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), "IRA: Methane Emissions Reduction Program, Oil and Gas Methane Monitoring and Mitigation (OGM).” The anticipated technical objectives are to make funds available to a variety of applicants for the purpose of monitoring and mitigating methane emissions, and legacy air pollution from oil and gas assets, including but not limited to marginal conventional wells.

  Three AOIs are expected:

  • AOI 1—Methane Emissions Reduction for Existing Wells and Infrastructure
  • AOI 2—Accelerating Deployment of Innovative Methane Reduction Solutions
  • AOI 3—Regional Methane Emissions Reduction Consortia. The intent of AOI 3 would be to develop region-specific partnerships among industry stakeholders including well operators, nonprofits, and local regulatory agencies including Tribes. 

  If released, this FOA may provide up to $1 billion in funding and the FECM anticipates releasing any FOA on or about March 2024.

Read the latest complete list of federal funding opportunities here. If you would like to receive alerts when the database is updated, subscribe here. As a reminder, refer to the white paper for a general guide to understanding how this federal funding works at a high level.

Finally, we invite you to review our IRA of 2022 Resource, Wilson Sonsini’s single-source digital platform of relevant information related to IRA implementation. The resource page's "Implementation Tracker" provides the latest overall implementation status for each credit and bonus credit regarding their implementation as of February 8, 2024.