Program and Grant Funding Opportunities
- Federal funding includes a mixture of formula and competitive grants and loan funds
- Most competitive funding opportunities are for state agencies, utilities, local governments, and public entities (schools, etc).
Formula Grants
- Amount: $500 million
- Type of funding: Formula to Office of Energy Development
- Description: support electric transmission and distribution planning, planning activities and programs that help reduce carbon emissions in all sectors of the economy
- Eligible uses: Energy conservation measures, renewable energy measures, and programs to increase deployment of clean energy technologies in buildings, industry and transportation
- Next Milestone: Estimated first round of funds released date, 2nd quarter 2022
- Amount: $5 billion
- Type of Funding: Formula to UDOT
- Description: Strategically deploy electric vehicle charging infrastructure and establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability.
- Eligible Uses: acquisition and installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and to connect it to a network to facilitate data collection, access, and reliability
- Next Milestone: Federal Highway Administration will publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity in 2022.
- Amount: $6.42 billion
- Type of Funding: Formula
- Description: Wide variety of transportation emission reduction options, including alternative fueling infrastructure, purchase of zero emission construction vehicles; port electrification; EE traffic lights, bike paths, public transit routes, etc.
- Eligible Uses: construction, planning, and design of non-motorized forms of transportation, public transportation projects, and congestion management projects.
- Next Milestone: Notice of Funding Opportunity in 2022.
- Amount: $3.5 billion for FY 2022
- Type of Funding: Formula to Dept. of Workforce Services
- Description: increase the energy efficiency of dwellings owned or occupied by low-income persons, reduce their total residential energy expenditures, and improve their health and safety, especially low-income persons who are particularly vulnerable
- Eligible Uses: Improvement of heating and cooling of dwellings by the installation of weatherization materials
- Next Milestone: Estimated first round of funds released date, 1st quarter of 2022.
- Amount: $250 million for FY 2022
- Type of Funding: Formula to Office of Energy Development
- Description: states to conduct commercial and residential energy audits, upgrades, and retrofits
- Next Milestone: TBD – potentially Q2, 2022
Competitive Grant Program Opportunities
Charging and Fueling Grants
- Amount: $2.5 billion
- Type of Funding: Competitive
- Description: Charging and refueling program for state, local, and tribal governments to strategically deploy publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- Eligible Entities: state agencies, a metropolitan planning organization, a unit of local government, a special purpose district or public authority with a transportation function, including a port authority or Indian tribe.
- Resource: Program Design info page
- Amount: $2.5 billion
- Type of Funding: Competitive
- Description: Charging and refueling program for state, local, and tribal governments to strategically deploy publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- Eligible Entities: state agencies, a metropolitan planning organization, a unit of local government, a special purpose district or public authority with a transportation function, including a port authority or Indian tribe.
- Resource: Program Design info page
- Amount: $1.25 billion
- Type of funding: Competitive
- Description: deploy electric vehicle charging and hydrogen/propane/ natural gas infrastructure along designated alternative fuel corridors and in communities.
- Next Milestone: Federal Highway Administration will publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity in 2022.
- Amount: $5 billion
- Type of Funding: Competitive Grant, Rebate, and Contract
- Description: replacing school buses with zero-emission school buses; clean or zero-emission bus replacements (Clean being certified to have emission reductions but not necessarily zero-emissions).
- Eligible Entities: State and local governments, eligible contractors and nonprofit school transportation associations, and Tribes
- Next Milestone: Applications for funding will be made available here later this spring.
- Read more on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program
- Amount: $250 million for FY 2022
- Type of Funding: Formula to Office of Energy Development
- Description: states to conduct commercial and residential energy audits, upgrades, and retrofits
- Next Milestone: TBD – potentially Q2, 2022
Energy Efficiency & Building Infrastructure Programs
- Amount: $40 million
- Type of Funding: Competitive
- Description: eligible states to train individuals to conduct energy audits or surveys of commercial and residential buildings
- Eligible Uses: A) To cover any cost associated with individuals being trained or certified to conduct energy audits by 1) the State; 2) a State-certified third-party training program; B) to pay the wages of a trainee during the period in which the trainee receives training and certification.
- Next Milestone: Estimated application open date, 2nd Quarter, 2022.
- Amount: $225 million
- Type of Funding: Competitive
- Description: enable sustained, cost-effective implementation of updated building energy codes
- Eligible Uses: create or enable State or regional partnerships to provide training and materials to: builders, contractors, subcontractors, architects, and other design and construction professionals, building code officials.
- Next Milestone: Applications for funding are expected to open by the end of 2022.
- Amount: $10 million
- Type of Funding: Competitive
- Description: institutions of higher education to establish centers to train engineers and other qualified individuals in energy efficient design and operations
- Eligible Uses: 6 separate categories
- Next Milestone: Estimated application opening date, 2nd Quarter, 2022
- Amount: $500 million
- Type of Funding: Competitive
- Description: energy efficiency improvements, install renewable energy, install alternative vehicle charging/fueling infrastructure, or procure alternative vehicles (e.g. electric school buses) at schools
- Eligible Recipients: consortium of one local education agency and one or more schools, nonprofits, for-profits, and community partners.
- Next Milestone: An official request for information is expected to be published in March 2022. The opportunity to apply for funding is expected to open in the Fall of 2022.
- Amount: $50 million
- Type of Funding: Competitive
- Description: nonprofits to equip their buildings with energy efficient materials (roof, lighting system, window, door, HVAC). Each grant is capped at $200,000.
- Eligible Uses: (i) a roof or lighting system or component of the system; (ii) a window; (iii) a door, including a security door; and (iv) a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning system or component of the system (including insulation and wiring and plumbing improvements needed to serve a more efficient system).
- Next Milestone: Estimated application opening date, 1st Quarter 2023
- Amount: $550 million for FY 2022
- Type of Funding: Block and Competitive
- Description: to states, local governments, and tribes to reduce energy use, reduce fossil fuel emissions, and improve energy efficiency.
- Eligible Uses: Several, including development and implementation of EE strategy, building energy audits, financial incentive programs, building code implementation, etc.
- Next Milestone: The first funding opportunity is expected for release in the Fall of 2022.
- Additional information: https://www.energy.gov/eere/wipo/energy-efficiency-and-conservation-block-grant-program
Electricity Grid, Transmission, and Energy Storage Programs
- Amount: $5,000,000,000
- Type of Funding: Cooperative Agreement or Grants
- Description: To demonstrate innovative approaches to transmission, storage, and distribution infrastructure to enhance resilience and reliability; demonstrate new approaches to enhance regional grid resilience
- Recipients: State, multiple states, Indian Tribes, units of local government, and/or public utility commissions
- Next Milestone: Estimated application opening date, 4th quarter 2022
- Amount: $5,000,000,000
- Type of Funding: Grant
- Description: Grants to eligible entities, States, and Tribes to prevent outages and enhance the resilience of the electric grid
- Eligible Uses: supplemental to existing hardening efforts; reduce risks of power lines causing wildfires; reduce the consequences of disruptive events
- Recipients: Electric grid operators, electricity storage operators, electricity generators, transmission owners and operators, distribution providers, States, and Tribes
- Next Milestone: Estimated application opening date, 4th quarter 2022
- Amount: $3,000,000,000 ($600 million appropriated annually for FY2022 – FY2026
- Type of Funding: Grant
- Description: Funding and expansion of eligible activities under the Smart Grid Investment Matching Grant Program
- Recipients: Utilities
- Eligible Uses: Qualifying Smart Grid investments including for installation, that allow buildings to engage in demand flexibility
- Next Milestone: Applications for the Smart Grid program are expected to be open by the end of 2022
Additional Programs
- Amount: $1,000,000,000
- Type of Funding: Cooperative Agreement
- Description: To provide financial assistance to increase environmental protection from impacts of energy use and improve resilience, reliability, safety, and availability of energy in rural/remote areas
- Eligible Uses: A) overall cost-effectiveness of energy generation, transmission or distribution systems, B) siting or upgrading transmission and distribution lines, C) reducing GHG emissions from energy generation in rural/remote areas, D) Providing or modernizing electric generation facilities, E) developing microgrids, F) increasing energy efficiency
- Next Milestone: Applications for funding are expected to be open in the Fall of 2022
- Amount: $60,000,000
- Type of Funding: Cooperative Agreement
- Description: To fund research, development, demonstration, and commercialization activities to improve wind energy technologies
- Eligible Recipients: Institutions of higher learning, national laboratories, state research agencies, tribal organizations, nonprofit research organizations, industrial entities
- Next Milestone: Estimated application opening date, 3rd Quarter 2022
- Amount: $40,000,000
- Type of Funding: Cooperative Agreement
- Description: To fund research, development, demonstration, and commercialization activities to improve solar energy technologies
- Eligible Recipients: Institutions of higher learning, national laboratories, state research agencies, tribal organizations, nonprofit research organizations, industrial entities
- Next Milestone: Estimated application opening date, 3rd Quarter 2022
Resources
External links:
- Building a Better America Guidebook
- Utah’s IIJA Opportunity Tracker
- The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will Deliver for Utah
- U.S. Department of Energy – Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Funding OpportunityAnnouncements
- Building a Better AmericaFact Sheet/Competitive Funding Opportunities for LocalGovernments
- Federal Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and EconomicRevitalization(Energy Communities)
We would like to clarify that Utah Clean Energy is not a solar company. We are a nonprofit organization that advocates for solar and other clean energy technologies, but we do not install or sell solar in any way.