DOE Announces $112.5 Million to Fund U.S. Wave Energy Open Water Testing
Submission deadline for full applications will be Jan. 30, 2025, 5:00 p.m. ET
Announcement Type: Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)
Opportunity: Oceans of Opportunity — U.S. Wave Energy Open Water Testing
Overview and Eligible Uses: The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) opened an opportunity for up to $112.5 million in funding to advance the commercial readiness of wave energy technologies through open water testing and system validation. This opportunity is designed to reduce risks for deployments, increase the potential for commercial adoption through longer-duration demonstrations (expected to last six months to two years), and offer additional benefits to help quickly advance WECs. This includes the ability to identify and mature high-potential WEC technologies, reduce financial risks for developers and incentivize investors, progress technologies at smaller scales while developing toward utility scale, and increase learning for installation, operations, and maintenance.
This opportunity will fund projects in three topic areas:
Up to $16.875 million for wave device development and open water testing for dispersed (e.g., remote/offshore) use cases and power-at-sea applications.
Up to $45 million for wave device development in direct support of coastal community needs, which may include power and/or desalinated water applications.
Up to $50.625 million for wave device development in support of utility power needs, utilizing offshore, grid-connected testing facilities such as PacWave.
Amount: $112,500,000
Award Type: Cooperative Agreement
Eligible Applicants:
For-profit entities and nonprofit entities that are organized, chartered, or incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of the United States or a particular state or territory of the United States and have a physical location for business operations in the United States are eligible to apply for funding as a prime recipient or subrecipient.
Institutions of higher education are eligible to participate as a subrecipient of this FOA but are not eligible to apply as a prime recipient.
State and local governmental entities and Indian Tribes are eligible to apply for funding as a prime recipient or subrecipient.
DOE/NNSA FFRDCs/National Laboratories (except NREL, Sandia, and PNNL) may apply as prime recipients or subrecipients.
Non-DOE/NNSA FFRDCs are eligible to participate as a subrecipient but are not eligible to apply as a prime recipient.
Federal agencies and instrumentalities (other than DOE) are eligible to participate as a subrecipient but are not eligible to apply as a prime recipient.
A foreign entity is eligible to apply for funding as a prime recipient if it designates in the Full Application a subsidiary or affiliate incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a state or territory of the United States to be the prime recipient. The Full Application must state the nature of the corporate relationship between the foreign entity and domestic subsidiary or affiliate.
Key Dates:
Submission Deadline for Concept Papers: Oct. 25, 2024, 5 p.m. ET
Submission Deadline for Full Applications: Jan. 30, 2025, 5 p.m. ET
Key Links:
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This tracker will continue to send updates when new funding opportunities are announced.