Grants for Small businesses - Energy

The Storefront Improvement Program (SIP) is to revitalize Soldotna’s commercial areas by stimulating additional private investment in the local economy. Donor Name: City of Soldotna State: Alaska City: Soldotna Type of Grant: Grant | Reimbursement Deadline: 06/30/2024 Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000 Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned Details: By partnering with local business owners and lessees to share the cost of beautifying the exterior of a business, the program aims to boost traffic, increase property values, and improve the overall look and vitality of the city’s commercial districts. The program was established in 2012 to meet several goals of Envision Soldotna 2030, the City’s long-range plan, including: Promoting development of the “downtown area” to attract both visitors and residents; Encouraging redevelopment of key areas, particularly along the river and major highways; Ensuring a healthy economy by supporting a diversity of local businesses; and Improving the streetscape along the Sterling and Kenai Spur Highways. The SIP is a discretionary reimbursement grant, which can be used for exterior improvements to businesses in the City of Soldotna.  Funding Information The amount available for each property is 50% of the cost of eligible improvements, up to a maximum of $7,500. Eligible Work  Rehabilitation of building facades that are visible to the street, including the following elements: storefronts; windows; exterior lighting; canopies and awnings; painting and masonry work; permanent landscaping; decorative, artistic or unique signs and graphics and accessibility improvements. The emphasis of the grant program is to encourage the transformation of building facades through improvements to one or more of the elements listed above.  Greater weight is awarded to projects that incorporate multiple elements.  The grant program is not intended to provide financial assistance for routine upkeep and maintenance (e.g., painting) or to satisfy required updates (e.g., signage resulting from change in ownership or business type, franchise requirements to change paint scheme, etc.). Applications are competitive and the highest ranking proposals will be funded first. Eligibility Criteria Eligible participants include property owners and business lessees. Ineligible participants Properties primarily in residential use (ex. apartments or condominiums); Structures not facing or visible from the right-of-way; Government offices and agencies (non-governmental tenants are eligible); New construction, less than 5 years old. For more information, visit COS.

Community Climate Collaborative Energy Efficiency Grants are available to small businesses for energy efficiency upgrades (appliances, lighting, heating/cooling systems, etc). Donor Name: Community Climate Collaborative State: Virginia County: Albemarle County (VA) Type of Grant: Grant Deadline: 07/01/2024 Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000 Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned Details: The goal is to help businesses achieve emissions reductions and financial savings through capital investment. Funding Information Grants are up to $2,000 each! Eligibility Criteria Have a business license in the City of Charlottesville or County of Albemarle. Qualify as a Microbusiness by Virginia SBSD criteria (25 employees or fewer). Preference will be given to Woman- or Minority-owned Business as defined by Virginia SBSD criteria. SWaM certification is desired, but equivalence is acceptable with valid documentation. Proposed upgrade must have demonstrable savings of energy usage and/or reduction of emissions. For more information, visit Community Climate Collaborative.

This solicitation presents an opportunity to shift towards on-site clean, dispatchable generation technologies, addressing the evolving generation mix and ensuring an ample supply of resources to meet the demands of critical facilities during the net peak period while maintaining system reliability. These technologies are well-suited to ensure a reliable and resilient energy supply for critical infrastructure on-site, including communications, healthcare, government offices, and many more, to provide on-demand load and peak matching. As such, this solicitation will focus on advancing emerging clean, dispatchable generation technologies, such as fuel cells or linear generators, using 100 percent renewable fuels, especially for critical sectors like industrial and commercial that have operational needs during peak hours. The projects from this solicitation will be deployed in these critical sectors and will reduce their demand on the grid, thereby decreasing the reliance from fossil-gas power plants during times of high electricity demand. Expected outcomes include on-site pilot-scale deployment of cost-effective and highly efficient clean, dispatchable generation technologies that will support energy demand of critical facilities and reduce the strain from the state’s electric grid while significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and criteria pollutants by curbing fossil-based generation. Ultimately, these projects will contribute to supporting the state's decarbonization goals, enhancing the reliability and strengthening the resilience of the state’s electric grid by increasing the availability of on-site clean, dispatchable generation technologies.

This grant provides financial support to applicants seeking federal funding for clean hydrogen projects, specifically those applying for opportunities from the Department of Energy.

This solicitation will target technologies that have the potential to demonstrate cost-effectiveness and scalable to multiple industrial facilities with potential to increase confidence for adoption.

Hydrogen can serve as a zero-carbon energy carrier and act as a potential replacement for fossil fuels in hard-to-electrify applications, particularly for the transportation, industrial, and electricity generation sectors. For the purposes of this solicitation, clean hydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced from water using eligible renewable energy resources, as defined in Public Utilities Code 399.12, or produced from these eligible renewable energy resources. To achieve sustainable wide-scale deployment, hydrogen must be produced cleanly at increased scale and reduced cost. This solicitation aims to reduce the cost burden of clean hydrogen production through large-scale, centralized production coupled with storage, delivery, and pre-determined offtakers to support a comprehensive hydrogen value chain. Expected outcomes include the development and deployment of low-carbon, cost-competitive hydrogen production from renewable energy sources and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in hard-to-electrify sectors.   The 2022 California Air Resources Board (CARB) Scoping Plan estimates that by 2045, demand for low-carbon hydrogen increases nearly two-fold the current levels of fossil hydrogen – or a 1,700-fold increase in existing low-carbon hydrogen supply – especially to support emerging end uses such as heavy-duty vehicles, power generation, industrial process heat, and synthetic fuels for aviation. Hydrogen produced from water using renewable energy resources or produced directly from renewable energy resources can provide low-carbon energy and act as an alternative to fossil gas, helping meet California's GHG reduction goals of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2045.     

The purpose of this solicitation is to provide cost share funding to applicants that apply for and receive one of the following:  An award under an eligible federal Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) and meet the requirements of this solicitation, or  Follow-on funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to continue research from a previously awarded federal grant that also received Energy Commission federal cost share funding under PON-14-308, GFO-18-902, or this GFO and the proposed project meets the requirements of this solicitation.   Continuously Updated Eligible Cost Share Opportunities Before applying, applicants are encouraged to check Eligibility Requirements in Section II of this solicitation. As new eligible cost share opportunities are released, the Energy Commission will revise this document with corresponding information on how to apply for cost share for that funding opportunity. Information on currently eligible funding opportunities can be found in the Eligible Federal Funding Opportunities section of the Eligibility Requirements (Section II.A.). The Energy Commission will provide cost share only to applicants that are applying for a federal funding opportunity or follow-on funding as described above. If the applicant has already received a federal award or follow-on funding and is seeking retroactive cost share, that application will not be eligible for CEC cost share funds under this solicitation.

The California Climate Crisis Act (AB 1279, 2022) established targets to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 85% below 1990 levels and reach carbon neutrality by 2045. Supporting this legislation, the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) 2022 Scoping Plan specifies that carbon removal activities such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) are new approaches that will need to be deployed to help achieve these GHG emissions reduction goals. Carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization is a promising approach in facilitating adoption of carbon capture and carbon removal while partially diverting the need for long term transportation and underground storage of CO2. Current CO2 utilization technologies are at an early stage of development and bear technical, economic, and market uncertainty. The carbon footprint associated with the energy consumption required to convert CO2 into value-added products prevents large-scale deployment of these technologies. The purpose of this solicitation is to improve the energy efficiency of innovative approaches and processes for manufacturing commodities using CO2 captured from industrial operations burning fossil gas. The goal is to decarbonize difficult-to-abate industrial fossil gas use via carbon dioxide utilization to create value-added products.

This solicitation aims to reduce building dependency on grid electricity, increase energy efficiency of HVAC equipment operating on DC power, decrease burdens – and enhance access – to solar and heat pump adoption, and create business and manufacturing opportunities for those who develop DC HVAC nanogrid modules. The potential technology solution could be a modular system that includes an appropriately-sized PV array and energy storage integrated with a DC HVAC system. Such systems could support cost-effective decarbonization, summer electric demand management, and increased market adoption of clean HVAC electrification while avoiding the complexities of interconnection and stand-alone PV and storage installation, particularly for those in under-resourced communities. These systems could provide the benefits of solar and storage to ratepayers who have limited roof space or cannot afford a larger building-level PV/storage system. The installation would ideally be similar to an HVAC replacement, in that it would not require an inverter, onsite electrician, interconnection agreement, conduits, wiring, electric panel upgrades, or other utility-side requirements. Power from the solar PV and energy storage would be used entirely onsite and would not be exported to the grid. Rather, these systems would gain efficiency benefits from direct DC connections among the solar PV, storage, and HVAC equipment. Projects under this initiative could also eliminate or reduce building HVAC load during peak hours in summer months, improving reliability on the grid. The unit would typically be powered by solar PV and energy storage, except when either solar or stored energy is unavailable; at those times, the HVAC would use an AC/DC converter to be powered by the grid. The HVAC could continue operation uninterrupted during a grid outage when there is adequate solar and storage power available to meet the HVAC system’s load. Funded projects must develop and demonstrate the following technologies in existing buildings: ·       DC-powered HVAC equipment that directly uses onsite solar generated electricity; ·       Energy and/or thermal storage integrated into the system to improve cost effectiveness; and ·                A transfer switch incorporated into the module to isolate generation equipment from the grid and simplify installation. Projects must fall within one of the following project groups: ·       Group 1: Residential DC HVAC Nanogrid; and ·       Group 2: Commercial DC HVAC Nanogrid.

This program provides financial assistance to small business and commercial property owners in Jackson, Mississippi, to improve the appearance of their buildings and attract more customers and investors.

The Equitable Building Decarbonization (EBD) Direct Install Program aims to distribute funds across Northern, Central, and Southern California to improve energy efficiency in low-income households. This involves installing electric appliances and related upgrades in single-family, multifamily, and manufactured homes within underresourced communities. The program emphasizes collaboration with community-based organizations to ensure culturally appropriate outreach and education. Applicants must exhibit expertise in residential building decarbonization.

This funding opportunity provides financial support to small utility companies and public utilities in Oklahoma for improving their electricity service resiliency through various enhancements like weatherization and advanced technologies.

The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses in Idaho for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. Eligible entities include agricultural producers with at least 50% income from agricultural operations and small businesses in rural areas, meeting specific criteria. The program supports a range of projects, including biomass, geothermal, hydropower, wind, and solar energy systems, as well as energy efficiency upgrades. Applications are accepted year-round, with specific deadlines for fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

This program provides free technical assistance to small Pennsylvania businesses to help them improve their operations and competitiveness by connecting them with expert resources and solutions for specific technical challenges.

This program provides financial assistance ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to small businesses in Pennsylvania that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Advanced Industries Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grant aims to support Colorado-based advanced industries technology businesses in developing and commercializing new technologies that will be created or manufactured in the state. The grant addresses the market's underinvestment in early-stage technologies by offering financial support of up to $250,000, with the possibility of exceeding this amount for projects impacting multiple advanced industries. Eligible businesses must be involved in creating disruptive technology, be registered and in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State, have a significant presence in Colorado, provide a 2-to-1 non-State funding match, and have limited prior financial support and revenues. Preference is given to applicants with ties to Colorado research institutions, entrepreneurship programs, and those recognized by investment groups for their commercial potential. Applications are accepted biannually Grant renewed every year. Grant Summer Annual deadline: July to September

The Advanced Industries Early-Stage Capital and Retention Grant aims to support Colorado-based advanced industries technology businesses in developing and commercializing new technologies that will be created or manufactured in the state. The grant addresses the market's underinvestment in early-stage technologies by offering financial support of up to $250,000, with the possibility of exceeding this amount for projects impacting multiple advanced industries. Eligible businesses must be involved in creating disruptive technology, be registered and in good standing with the Colorado Secretary of State, have a significant presence in Colorado, provide a 2-to-1 non-State funding match, and have limited prior financial support and revenues. Preference is given to applicants with ties to Colorado research institutions, entrepreneurship programs, and those recognized by investment groups for their commercial potential. Applications are accepted biannually. Grant renewed every year. Grant Winter Annual deadline: January to March

The purpose of this solicitation is to award grants to fund projects focused on geothermal energy and lithium recovery from geothermal brine that support local jurisdictions and private entities to advance the geothermal sector and related activities per Public Resource Code (PRC) Sections 3800-3827 and California Code of Regulations (CCR) Sections 1660-1665. ; This solicitation aims to support the goals of Senate Bill 100 (SB 100, De Leon, Chapter 312, Statures of 2018), Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32, Nunez, Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006), and SB 32 (Pavley, Chapter 249, Statutes of 2016) to meet the eligible renewable energy, zero-carbon energy, and greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. The proposed projects must not exceed thirty-six (36) months in length – the project term must be in alignment with the proposed project scope and budget, and it is encouraged to explain that alignment in the Project Narrative (Attachment 3). The proposed projects are limited to addressing one of the eligible purposes allowed by the Geothermal Grant and Loan Program, as presented in Section I.C., Project Focus, per PRC Section 3823. This solicitation will be conducted as a two-phase process. Phase one is for local jurisdictions that want to compete for technical assistance funds to develop and prepare the full proposal for this solicitation. Phase one applicants need to complete a 1) Technical Assistance Application Form, 2) Technical Assistance Project Summary, and 3) Technical Assistance Scope of Work. Phase two is for local jurisdictions and private entities to submit the full proposal, as indicated in Section I E. (Key Activities Schedule) of this solicitation. See Part II of this solicitation for applicant and project eligibility requirements. Phase one and Phase two applications will be evaluated as follows: (1) proposal screening and (2) proposal scoring, as fully described in Section IV. Applicants may submit multiple applications, though each application must address only one of the eligible purposes identified in Section 1 C. (Project Focus) of this solicitation. If an applicant submits multiple applications, each application must be for a distinct project (i.e., no overlap with respect to the tasks described in the Scope of Work).

The purpose of this solicitation is to fund applied research to increase California’s hydropower generation through precipitation enhancement (cloud seeding). Research funded by this solicitation will foster cost-effective, robust approaches to manage anticipated needs for zero-carbon, fast-ramping resources in the context of a rapidly evolving energy system and climate change.; The proposed research contributes to implementation of the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) 2021-2025 Investment Plan and responds to the strategic objective: “Inform California's Transition to an Equitable, Zero-Carbon Energy System that is Climate-Resilient and Meets Environmental Goals” (Chapter 7). Specifically, this solicitation supports the topic 44 within the Climate Resilience Initiative: “Integrating Climate Resilience in Electricity System Planning.” Hydroelectric power is an important source of zero-carbon, dispatchable power in California. It is a critical element of the state’s electricity system and in-state generation, providing peaking reserve, spinning reserve, and load following capacity, as well as transmission line support (Somani, et al., 2021). The percentage of the state’s electricity supplied by hydropower varies, as hydropower resources are strongly dependent on magnitude and timing of snowmelt runoff and rainfall. Between 2012 and 2021, hydropower (including in-state generation and imports) provided an average of 9 percent of California’s total energy mix (California Energy Commission 2022). As the state continues to contend with drought and other climate-driven impacts on water and hydropower resource availability, as well as develop more sustainable water management practices (California Water Action Plan, 2014), the proposed research will support opportunities for increasing and sustaining hydropower generation. Specifically, the research will contribute to more effective precipitation enhancement (cloud seeding) strategies.

This program provides financial assistance for energy audits to help New Hampshire's agricultural producers and rural small businesses improve energy efficiency and reduce costs.