The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the Energyshed: Exploring Place‐Based Generation funding opportunity, which will award $10 million in funding for projects to develop tools to help communities understand the implications of consuming clean energy that they generate locally.
These tools can enable more reliable, resilient, efficient, and affordable grids that address long-standing inequities in the distribution of cost and benefits across energy systems.
DOE expects to make two to five awards under this funding opportunity, each ranging from $2 to $5 million. DOE seeks a diverse set of applicants, including universities, research and development centers, individuals, and civil society organizations.
Results from these tools should be accessible to all audiences and consistent whether considered from the perspective of utilities, government agencies, local communities, or individual consumers.
Successful projects will:
- For a defined geographic area, collect a variety of relevant data as needed from utilities, consumers, local governments, community-based organizations, etc. to make energy decisions and understand the implications of those choices;
- Develop a set of analytical tools which provide stakeholders the ability to fully weigh the impacts and tradeoffs, including potential benefits and challenges of developing more locally-derived generation under a range of future scenarios;
- Create associated communications tools to efficiently present analytical results in an appropriate context for different categories of users; and
- Validate data, tools, and processes through robust stakeholder engagement with one or more representative communities.
This work should be directed towards balancing the impacts and tradeoffs, including potential benefits and challenges of more locally based generation, and addressing a variety of considerations including but not limited to the following:
- Attributes related to the electric power system including resilience, reliability, security, affordability, flexibility, and sustainability;
- Workforce development, economic development, local retention of energy expenditures, and equity;
- Clean energy jobs and workforce development;
- Environmental exposure;
- Clean energy enterprise creation;
- Energy democracy and ownership;
- Parity in clean energy technology access and adoption;
- Minimalization of curtailment of renewable generation;
- Improvement in the reliability of transmission and distribution of electricity; and
- Provision of clear and actionable information to all stakeholders to inform their decisions related to local energy generation.
DOE encourages the participation of underserved communities and underrepresented groups. As part of the application, applicants should describe how they will incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives in the project.
EERE will host an informational webinar on the Energysheds FOA on June 22, 2022 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss the funding program as well as the application requirements.
Cost Sharing
The cost share must be at least 20% of the total allowable costs for research and development projects (i.e., the sum of the government share, including FFRDC costs if applicable, and the recipient share of allowable costs equals the total allowable cost of the project) and must come from non-federal sources unless otherwise allowed by law.
If you intend to submit complete the notification form to provide your contact information and the title and brief description of your project.
Questions concerning the limited submissions process may be submitted to limitedsubs@psu.edu.