Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Fixed Award Grant Program (DE-FOA-0003045)

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Fixed Award Grant Program (DE-FOA-0003045) is sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). The ERA Program intends to improve the cost, reliability, environmental impact, and climate and economic resilience of energy systems in rural or remote communities by funding clean energy projects.

DOE Funding Opportunity Exchange - OCED DOE will be conducting planned server and network maintenance this weekend between 6:00 PM ET Saturday 9/12 and 6:00 AM ET Sunday 9/13. eXCHANGE may experience interruptions during this period.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas - Fiscal Year 2025 Release Notice Of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) Notice of Intent to Issue: DE-FOA-0003428 Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas FY24 Notice of Intent to Publish Announcement (NOI) Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Fixed Award Grant Program Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL): Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas Request for Information (RFI) DE-FOA-0003428: Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas - Fiscal Year 2025 Release Rural and remote areas often have higher energy costs and burden, less resilient energy systems, and fewer alternatives for accessing clean energy compared with their urban counterparts.

Furthermore, small communities do not always have the available time, money, or other resources to pursue clean energy options. This Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) funding opportunity provides support for rural and remote communities to build clean energy projects that benefit their communities.

The goals of the program are to: Deliver measurable and sustained benefits to people who live in rural or remote areas by funding replicable clean energy projects that lower energy costs, improve energy access and resilience, increase economic opportunity, and/or reduce environmental harm.

Demonstrate effective rural or remote energy system approaches using climate-resilient technologies, business structures that promote economic resilience, accessible and appropriate financing mechanisms, and/or best practices in community leadership and engagement, and workforce development. Build clean energy knowledge, experience, capacity, and self-reliance in rural and remote parts of America.

This program serves communities of 10,000 people or fewer. Applicants must propose projects that support at least one of these eligible activities: A. Improving overall cost-effectiveness of energy generation, transmission, or distribution systems; B.

Siting or upgrading transmission and distribution lines; C. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from energy generation in rural or remote areas; D. Providing or modernizing electric generation facilities; E.

Developing microgrids; and F. Increasing energy efficiency. Applications may include any technology that meet the above eligible activities, as long as those technologies are commercially available.

Applicants must choose one of the four topic areas for their project’s application: Smaller-scale community-centered Isolated microgrids & unelectrified buildings NOTE: Applicants must submit a Concept Paper by 5:00 pm ET on February 27, 2025. Applicants must submit a concept paper by the specified due date and time to be eligible to submit an application. Applicants who do not submit a concept paper cannot apply.

DOE will encourage a subset of applicants to submit applications and will discourage the other applicants from submitting an application.

Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO): Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas – Fiscal Year 2025 Release (Last Updated: 10/3/2024 10:55 AM ET) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO): Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas – Fiscal Year 2025 Release (Spanish) (Last Updated: 1/15/2025 09:18 AM ET) DE-FOA-0003428_Q&A_Log_posted_13_January_2025 (Last Updated: 1/13/2025 11:46 AM ET) Application Forms and Templates The following forms and templates may be used as part of the application submission.

Note that these forms and templates do not necessarily constitute all the documents required for a complete application. Please refer to the 'Application and Submission Information' of the published announcement to learn more about the required application content requirements.

SF-424: Application for Federal Assistance and SF-LLL: Disclosure of Lobbying Activities On October 8, 2024 , the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) held an informational webinar on the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) program Notice of Funding Opportunity, featuring an overview of the funding announcement, the program, and next steps for applicants.

Webinar recording in English: https://youtu. be/SLWFGCkrNvY Webinar recording in Spanish: https://youtu.

be/7HD9a4sQYLU _______________________________________________________ Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program Technical Assistance Please see this list of technical assistance programs , including those offered by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), other offices within DOE, and other federal agencies, that may benefit communities and organizations following the ERA program.

Technical assistance refers to targeted programs, activities, and services provided by federal agencies that improve the performance and deepen the impact of federal programs. Applicant technical assistance through NREL has been paused temporarily. OCED-ExchangeSupport@hq.

doe. gov For all technical issues involving OCED eXCHANGE. Please include the funding opportunity title and number in subject line.

For questions regarding the content of this NOFO.

Concept Paper Submission Deadline: 2/27/2025 5:00 PM ET Full Application Submission Deadline: 8/28/2025 5:00 PM ET DE-FOA-0003423: Notice of Intent to Issue: DE-FOA-0003428 Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas FY24 The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) intends to issue a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) entitled “Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas FY24”.

The goals of this NOFO are to deliver measurable and sustained benefits to people who live in rural or remote areas; demonstrate rural or remote energy system approaches; and build clean energy knowledge, capacity, and self-reliance in rural and remote parts of America.

OCED anticipates that funding will support materials, equipment, time, labor, and other resources to build clean energy projects in rural or remote communities and run other allowable activities (e.g., collaboration, outreach, and engagement with Tribes and stakeholders, or workforce development programs).

This Notice of Intent (NOI or Notice) describes a preliminary plan that will evolve during the Funding Opportunity development process. DISCLAIMER: The “Notice of Intent to Issue” is for informational purposes only; the Department of Energy is not seeking comments on the information in this notice and applications are not being accepted at this time. Any information contained in this notice is subject to change.

Energy_Improvements_in_Rural_or_Remote_Areas_FY24_Notice_of_Intent_DE-FOA-0003423 (Last Updated: 8/22/2024 01:53 PM ET) OCED-ExchangeSupport@hq. doe. gov For questions related to the use of the eXCHANGE website.

Concept Paper Submission Deadline: TBD Full Application Submission Deadline: TBD DE-FOA-0002970: Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas ATTENTION (1/5/2024): Expected Date for OCED Selection Notifications: February ATTENTION (11/6/2023): Expected Date for OCED Selection Notifications: December/January ATTENTION (6/2/2023): This Funding Opportunity Announcement has been modified and the Submission Deadline for Full Applications has been extended to 5:00 pm EST on 8/2/2023.

The page limits for the Community Benefits Plan have also been updated. Please see the full Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 in the Announcement Documents section for full details. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), commonly referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), authorizes DOE to invest $1 billion in energy improvements in rural or remote areas.

DOE’s Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program will provide financial investment, technical assistance, and other resources to advance clean energy demonstrations and energy solutions that are replicable and scalable.

ERA aims to fund clean energy projects with three specific goals: Deliver measurable benefits to energy customers in rural or remote areas by funding replicable energy projects that lower energy costs, improve energy access and resilience, and/or reduce environmental harm; Demonstrate new rural or remote energy system models using climate-resilient technologies, business structures that promote economic resilience, new financing mechanisms, and/or new community engagement best practices; and Build clean energy knowledge, capacity, and self-reliance in rural America .

The ERA Program is managed by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), whose mission is to deliver clean energy technology demonstration projects at scale to accelerate deployment, market adoption, and the equitable transition to a decarbonized energy system.

OCED seeks to provide equal opportunity to qualified applicants from rural and remote areas of the United States, which for the purposes of this statutory section means areas of less than 10,000 people. OCED recognizes that potential applicants will come to this program with widely varying energy and resilience needs.

To address this reality that one size does not fit all, OCED has organized this $300 million Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) into nine geographic regions, each with its own set of broad energy challenges that provide applicants the opportunity to propose creative solutions at a variety of sizes and scales to address those challenges.

Depending on response, OCED may open up additional Funding Opportunity Announcements in the future. The ERA Program intends to improve the cost, reliability, environmental impact, and climate and economic resilience of energy systems in rural or remote communities by funding clean energy projects with commercially viable or near-commercially viable technologies.

Projects funded through this FOA will de-risk investment in the energy infrastructure of rural or remote communities. Funded projects will provide insights for future investments, such as deployment of similar technologies, use of similar business models, or adoption of similar community engagement best practices and clarify pathways to future good paying union jobs.

Ensuring Direct Benefit to Rural or Remote Areas This FOA is designed to enable citizens in rural or remote communities to realize material benefits as the result of investment in their energy infrastructure. These benefits can include, but are not limited to: lower energy costs, improved energy access, economic resilience, and environmental protection from adverse impacts of historic energy generation.

Selected projects will implement cost-effective clean energy technologies that promote the overall resilience of the local energy system against climate impacts, and support more diversified rural economies better able to weather economic shocks. To ensure that these benefits are spread equitably across affected communities applicants are required to submit a Community Benefits Plan (CBP).

This plan outlines how the project will support community and labor engagement, invest in the American workforce, contribute to the President’s goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities (the Justice40 Initiative), and promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA).

DOE recognizes that applicants have different levels of capacity and experience related to this kind of community-focused planning, and will support FOA awardees to develop and implement robust, locally tailored, and measurable plans. Consistent with the objectives of this program, OCED expects projects to utilize local staff and local resources to the maximum extent possible.

If external resources are necessary, projects funded under this FOA and any related activities will seek to encourage meaningful engagement and participation of local business organizations, labor unions, underserved communities and underrepresented groups, federally recognized Tribes and tribal and indigenous communities and native entities.

Promoting Community Energy Solutions for Regional Climate Challenges Selected projects will promote community energy solutions to improve the cost, reliability, environmental impacts, and climate and economic resilience of energy generation in rural or remote communities. Applicants are required to identify at least one applicable region for the project, along with any regional climate risk(s) the project is proposing to help mitigate.

OCED seeks applications that leverage a region’s natural resources, local industry, stakeholders, climate and/or economic risks, or other factors, as such factors may be critical towards the ultimate replicability of the project in other rural or remote areas within the region.

OCED encourages applicants to identify regional challenges and opportunities as they see fit based on their own assessment of their community’s energy challenges, needs and opportunities. Ensuring Project Replicability Replicability is key to market adoption of technologies to benefit rural or remote areas beyond those participating in the ERA Program.

The program seeks to build confidence of decision makers to invest in clean energy in rural and remote areas, including financiers, utilities, and Tribal, State, and local governments, who can enable replication.

Proposed projects can demonstrate established, commercial technologies for the first time in a new setting or place, or at a larger scale; an innovative approach to improve siting and permitting timelines; enabling energy access for homes/communities that do not have access to electricity; self-reliance, or reduction in environmental harm from generation; economic development and local job creation leading to more overall economic resilience, and/or an innovative technology application in a rural or remote area.

Technical assistance from DOE’s national laboratories is available for eligible applicants. Technical assistance is available for application preparation through office hours and limited individual sessions. Information on technical assistance, including eligibility and how to apply for it, is available here.

ATTENTION (1/5/2024): Expected Date for OCED Selection Notifications: February ATTENTION (11/6/2023): Expected Date for OCED Selection Notifications: December/January ATTENTION (6/2/2023): This Funding Opportunity Announcement has been modified and the Submission Deadline for Full Applications has been extended to 5:00 pm EST on 8/2/2023. The page limits for the Community Benefits Plan have also been updated.

Please see the full Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 in the Announcement Documents section for full details.

DE-FOA-0002970 Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas Full Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 (PDF version) (Last Updated: 6/7/2023 11:55 AM ET) DE-FOA-0002970 Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas Full Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 (Microsoft Word version) (Last Updated: 6/7/2023 11:55 AM ET) FOA Guidance Document - Mod 000001 (PDF version) (Last Updated: 6/5/2023 04:33 PM ET) FOA Guidance Document - Mod 000001 (Microsoft Word version) (Last Updated: 6/5/2023 04:34 PM ET) Community Benefits Plan Guidance (PDF version) (Last Updated: 4/10/2023 11:50 AM ET) Community Benefits Plan Guidance (Microsoft Word version) (Last Updated: 3/3/2023 03:29 PM ET) DE-FOA-0002970 Teaming Partner List (Posted 4/21/2023) (Last Updated: 4/21/2023 05:44 PM ET) (Last Updated: 8/1/2023 01:12 PM ET) Application Forms and Templates The following forms and templates may be used as part of the application submission.

Note that these forms and templates do not necessarily constitute all the documents required for a complete application. Please refer to the 'Application and Submission Information' of the published announcement to learn more about the required application content requirements. Budget Justification Workbook (Last Updated: 2/28/2023 09:46 AM ET) DOE will conduct one or more informational webinars during the FOA process.

Webinar(s) will be held after the initial FOA release but before the due date for Applications. Attendance is not mandatory and will not positively or negatively impact the overall review of any applicant submissions.

As the webinar(s) will be open to all applicants who wish to participate, applicants should refrain from asking questions or communicating information that would reveal confidential and/or proprietary information specific to their project. A recording of the Webinar is available here . For questions regarding FOA content and requirements OCED-ExchangeSupport@hq.

doe.

gov For technical issues with / questions regarding OCED eXCHANGE Concept Paper Submission Deadline: 4/14/2023 5:00 PM ET Full Application Submission Deadline: 8/2/2023 5:00 PM ET DE-FOA-0003045: Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Energy Improvement in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Fixed Award Grant Program ATTENTION (9/1/2023) : This Funding Opportunity Announcement has been modified and the Submission Deadline for Full Applications has been extended to 5:00 pm EST on 10/26/2023.

Please see the full Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 in the Announcement Documents section for full details. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), commonly referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) authorizes DOE to invest $1 billion in energy improvements in rural or remote areas.

DOE’s Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program is managed by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). OCED will provide financial investment, technical assistance, and other resources to advance clean energy demonstrations and energy solutions that benefit rural and remote communities. ERA aims to fund clean energy projects with three specific goals: 1.

Deliver measurable benefits to energy customers in rural or remote areas by funding replicable energy projects that lower energy costs, improve energy access and resilience, and/or reduce environmental harm; 2. Support new rural or remote energy system models using climate-resilient technologies, business structures that promote economic resilience, new financing mechanisms, and/or new community engagement practices; and 3.

Build clean energy knowledge, capacity, and self-reliance in rural America . Technical assistance from DOE’s national laboratories is available for eligible applicants. Technical assistance is available for pre-application preparation through office hours and limited individual sessions.

Information on technical assistance, including eligibility and how to apply for it, is available here. NOTE: Applicants must submit a Pre-Application by 5:00 pm ET on the due date. Only successful pre-applicants will be invited to complete a more detailed full application.

Please refer to FOA Section 4. 0 which outlines the required form and content of all application submissions. Word counts and individual page limits provided in the template are approximations; however, the entire Pre-Application must not exceed 10 pages.

DOE will review only the information provided to support the questions in the Pre-Application template. Additional information will not be considered. Note that responses provided in the Pre-Application must be verified and/or substantiated in the full application.

A template is provided to assist the applicant, but use of the template is not required, and use of the template (or not) has no bearing on how the submission will be reviewed. ERA has updated this template to a word document based on feedback and accessibility; however applicants are free to use the prior PDF template version if they prefer. For information and guidance please visit the OCED Funding page.

DE-FOA-0003045 BIL ERA Grant Program Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 (Microsoft Word version) (Last Updated: 9/1/2023 03:02 PM ET) DE-FOA-0003045 BIL ERA Grant Program Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 (Microsoft Word version - Spanish) (Last Updated: 10/11/2023 10:12 PM ET) DE-FOA-0003045 BIL ERA Grant Program Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 (PDF version) (Last Updated: 9/1/2023 03:03 PM ET) DE-FOA-0003045 BIL ERA Grant Program Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 (PDF version - Spanish) (Last Updated: 10/11/2023 10:13 PM ET) FOA-0003045 BIL ERA Grant Program FOA Guidance Document - Mod 000001 (MS Word) (Last Updated: 10/6/2023 06:39 PM ET) DE-FOA-0003045 BIL ERA Grant Program FOA Guidance Document - Mod 000001 (PDF) (Last Updated: 10/6/2023 06:37 PM ET) DE-FOA-0003045 BIL ERA Grant Program Community Benefits Plan Guidance (PDF) (Last Updated: 5/11/2023 10:35 AM ET) DE-FOA-0003045 BIL ERA Grant Program Community Benefits Plan Guidance (MS Word) (Last Updated: 5/11/2023 10:35 AM ET) FOA_3045_ERA_Grant_1_Q&A_Log_-_posted_10-25-2023 (Last Updated: 10/25/2023 01:57 PM ET) Application Forms and Templates The following forms and templates may be used as part of the application submission.

Note that these forms and templates do not necessarily constitute all the documents required for a complete application. Please refer to the 'Application and Submission Information' of the published announcement to learn more about the required application content requirements.

(Last Updated: 9/1/2023 03:11 PM ET) SF-424_Application_for_Federal_Assistance ***** PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS WHEN DOWNLOADING THE REQUIRED SF-424 PDF FROM OCED EXCHANGE: 1. Click to download the PDF from OCED Exchange. 2.

Open Adobe on your computer. 3. Once in Adobe, click File > Open and select the downloaded PDF.

(Last Updated: 9/1/2023 03:14 PM ET) ATTENTION (9/1/2023) : This Funding Opportunity Announcement has been modified and the Submission Deadline for Full Applications has been extended to 5:00 pm EST on 10/26/2023. Please see the full Funding Opportunity Announcement - Mod 000001 in the Announcement Documents section for full details.

OCED hosted a webinar on September 7, 2023 , to share updates about this funding opportunity, trends from the Pre-Application process and next steps for the Full Application process. A recording of the September 7, 2023 webinar is available here: https://www. youtube.

com/watch? v=pq48NYty8mA On May 30, 2023, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) held an informational webinar on the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program grant funding for community-based projects between $500,000-$5 million.

This funding requires no cost share from recipients and projects funded will improve the cost, reliability, environmental impact, and climate resilience of energy systems in rural or remote areas with 10,000 or fewer inhabitants.

An overview of the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations An overview of the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas Program grant funding, including application process and funding requirements Answers to questions received on the grant funding A transcript and recording is available here: https://www. youtube. com/watch?

v=77iIBEA54F8. OCED-ExchangeSupport@hq. doe.

gov For all technical issues involving Clean Energy Infrastructure exchange For questions regarding the content of this FOA Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Responses to questions are posted to the FAQs webpage .

Pre-Application Submission Deadline: 7/13/2023 5:00 PM ET Full Application Submission Deadline: 10/26/2023 5:00 PM ET DE-FOA-0002841: Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL): Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas The purpose of this modification is to extend the RFI submission deadline to December 5, 2022 .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To help inform Department of Energy's (DOE) implementation of the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program, this Request for Information (RFI) seeks input on: Outcomes the program should seek to deliver for residents of rural or remote areas, and the types of innovative energy projects that achieve those outcomes and meet the authorization language; considerations that could impact programmatic design or strategy; community benefits, including energy and environmental justice (EEJ), diversity, equity inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) considerations; and quality jobs, and ways to broadly share knowledge gained and impacts.

Responses to this RFI will be used by DOE for planning purposes to develop the ERA Program, which may include the use of Technical Assistance, Prizes, Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs), Other Transactional Authorities (OTAs), or Partnership Intermediary Agreements (PIAs). The information collected will not be published. Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to ERA@hq.

doe. gov no later than 12:00pm (ET) on 12/05/2022. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. The Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) will not pay for information provided under this RFI and no project will be supported as a result of this RFI. This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance or financial incentives.

OCED may or may not issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) based on consideration of the input received from this RFI. Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas RFI_Mod 0001 (updated 11. 16.

2022) (Last Updated: 11/16/2022 12:11 PM ET) ERA@hq. doe. gov RFI Response Inbox Full Application Submission Deadline: TBD Web Site Policies | U.S. Department of Energy | DOE Responsible Disclosure