Appalachian Regional Commission opens $5M for Regional Energy Hub Initiative
Announcement Type: Notice of Solicitation of Applications (NOSA)
Opportunity: Appalachian Regional Energy Hub Initiative - Research and Planning Grants
Overview and Eligible Uses: The IIJA’s reauthorization of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) included an authorization for an Appalachian Regional Energy Hub Initiative to be funded at $5M per year. This NOSA, in accordance with the IIJA, requests proposals to conduct research and analysis described in the statute regarding the Appalachian Regional Energy Hub Initiative and for projects or activities that will help establish a regional energy hub in Appalachia for hydrogen from natural gas feedstocks.
In this phase of ARC’s Energy Hub Initiative, ARC envisions awarding research grants to recipients with the ability and capacity to perform, contract out, and/or sub-award grant funds to eligible sub-awardees in two categories:
natural gas, natural gas liquids, and ethane energy hub research
hydrogen from natural gas feedstocks implementation
ARC’s intent is to award only non-construction grants in this first round of funding availability for the Energy Hub Initiative, ARC may consider awarding grants for construction in subsequent funding opportunity announcements under this initiative.
Amount: ARC envisions awarding a single grant under the natural gas and natural liquids research (topic 1 in above overview) and one or more grants under the hydrogen from natural gas feedstocks implementation (topic 2 in above overview). ARC reserves the right to allocate the funding at its sole discretion, and will only consider grant applications that do not exceed the maximum amount of funding available for the initiative ($5M).
Award Type: Grants
Eligible Applicants: Eligible organizations include local development districts, Indian Tribes or a consortium of Indian Tribes, states, counties, cities, or other political subdivisions of a state, institutions of higher education or consortium of institutions of higher education, public or private nonprofit organizations or associations, and labor organizations or labor management partnerships.
Projects must serve and benefit a portion of the Appalachian Region as defined by the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965.
Key Dates: Applications are due by Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
Key Links:
Appalachian Regional Energy Hub Initiative
Appalachian Regional Commission
For a full list of currently available grant programs under the Infrastructure Law and other helpful tools, take a look at our Helpful Resources page.
This tracker will continue to send updates when new funding opportunities are announced.