Federal Opportunities | State Specific Opportunities
Federal Opportunities
Energy Auditor Training Grant Program – The Energy Auditor Training Programs aims to train individual to conduct energy audits or surveys of commercial and residential buildings. This opportunity is open to both states with and those without current, standardized framing for the education and training of energy auditors in their state. This grant would assist states in creating that curriculum if needed and help states update their curriculum to align with current and/or future standards. SCEP hopes that this funding will help states close the gap of energy auditors within the workforce and assist underrepresented groups enter the clean energy workforce.
Who is eligible? State Governments
Concept Papers Due – 3/28/2024
Applications Due – 6/28/2024
Capacity Building for Repurposing Energy Assets – Expanded - Funded through DOE’s FECM Office, this announcement builds on the Capacity Building for Repurposing Energy Assets initiative that was first launched in August 2023 to assist communities where a significant portion of their local economy has historically been supported by energy assets, such as coal, oil, and/or natural gas power facilities and accompanying equipment and infrastructure.
Who is eligible? Community colleges, local economic development entities, community-based organizations, municipal offices, labor unions, organizations that represent workers in energy communities and workforce development entities.
Concept papers due: 4/18/24
Clean Energy Peer-Learning Cohorts from U.S. DOE - Agrivoltaics, Energy Efficiency, and Fleet Electrification – The U.S Department of Energy’s Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program is now accepting applications for a new round of peer-learning cohorts!
C2C’s peer-learning cohorts convene communities from across the country to spend 6 months learning from energy experts—and each other—about best practices, strategies, and tools for approaching a specific energy topic.
The three cohort topics in this round are:
- Energy efficiency programs for residential buildings
- Electrifying municipal fleet vehicles
- Implementing agrivoltaics projects
The peer-learning cohorts will start in July. Learn more and apply on the C2C peer-learning cohorts webpage.
Applications due: 4/30/24
Target Participants: Depending on cohort topic, target participants include local and regional governments, municipal and cooperative utilities, tribes, and community-based organizations.
Cohort Launch: July 2024
Cohort Duration: 6 months
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL): Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation (RECI) - This FOA is the second installment in the RECI initiative, which maintains the same broad format, flexibility, and crosscutting areas of interest, while emphasizing and prioritizing specific gaps, needs, and opportunities to support building energy codes identified as focal points through the first RECI FOA and continued stakeholder engagement. The activities to be funded under the FOA support the BIL, as well as a broader government-wide approach to advance building codes and support their successful implementation. The primary focus centers around updating to more efficient building energy codes that save money for American homes and businesses, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and encourage more resilient buildings. This FOA includes one topic area broadly focused on the cost-effective implementation of updated energy codes.
Who is eligible? City, county or state governments; Public housing authorities; For profit organizations, non profits, Public and private controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal organizations, Independent school districts.
Concept papers due: 4/8/24
Applications due: 6/6/24
EECBG Program Formula Application - Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants can fund projects to cut carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, and reduce energy consumption.
Who is eligible? Local governments and Tribal governments
Local government applications due: 4/30/24
Tribal government applications due: 5/30/25
SEOs can use this funding to begin planning their programs. When applying, SEOs are eligible to receive up to 2.5 percent of their total allocations from each Rebates program, capped at $2.5 million per rebate program, or $5 million total. SEOs may bypass this application and receive these funds as part of their full program funding.
DOE is instituting this May 31 deadline to focus its resources on reviewing full funding applications and helping states launch programs. DOE encourages SEOs that haven’t begun an early administrative funding application to focus instead on submitting their full funding application as soon as possible.
Renew America's School – The DOE has announced Renew America’s Schools program’s second round of funding opportunity to support energy efficiency and clean energy infrastructure improvements at K-12 public schools across the country. The Renew America’s Schools program launched its first round of funding in 2022, and to date, it has invested $182.5 million in public school districts across America. Applications are now open, and this round introduces a prize-to-cooperative agreement funding model to streamline the application process. The submission deadline is June 13. Questions regarding the Prize should be submitted to schools@doe.gov.
There will be two upcoming webinars on this topic:
Wednesday, April 24 at 1 p.m. ET: Webinar Registration - Zoom
Wednesday, May 29 at 2 p.m. ET: Webinar Registration - Zoom
Applications Due: 6/13/24
Community Change Grants – Funded through the IRA, this EPA program aims to fund climate and environmental justice (EJ) activities that benefit and strengthen disadvantaged communities. The EPA has identified the following goals for these programs:
- Reducing and preventing pollution
- Building resilience to climate change & mitigating current & future climate risks
- Enhancing meaningful involvement in government processes related to environmental and climate justice
- Expanding access to high quality jobs & economic opportunity through workforce development
- Bolstering community strength by ensuring that local residents receive the benefits of investments and have the opportunity to building on them for current & future generations
Who is eligible? A partnership between a CBO and another CBO, a federally-recognized tribe, a local government, or an institution of higher learning.
Applications Due: 11/24/2024
State Specific Opportunities
Community Energy Management Program (MI) – The goal of the Community Energy Management Program is to assist local governments and tribes with improving energy management and accelerate the implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources through community engagement, building upgrades and energy planning & benchmarking. Some priorities for this funding include reducing energy waste, boosting the use & accessibility of renewable energy and using energy audits to guide energy efficiency investments.
Who is eligible? Any local government, tribe, or public service entity that is physically located in Michigan.
Applications Due – Rolling until funds are committed or 6/30/2024
CEJA Equitable Energy Future Grants (IL) – The goal of the Equitable Energy Future Grants is to provide seed and pre-development funding to support the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects benefitting businesses, community organizations and the workforce in historically disadvantaged communities, who often face barriers to obtaining the needed capital to complete such projects. Examples of eligible projects include planning & project development, professional services, purchasing & leasing land, equipment and staff, to name a few.
Who is eligible? Equity eligible contractors & independent contractors, nonprofits, co-operatives that are majority-owned by equity eligible persons and businesses & nonprofits with a proposed project that meets equity building criteria. Equity eligible means the business or nonprofit are majority-owned by equity-eligible persons, including:
- Participants in CEJA workforce programs
- Illinois foster care children or formally in the foster care system
- People who are formerly incarcerated
- Illinoisans who live in an R3 zone or environmental justice community
Applications Due – 6/30/2024