Wilson Sonsini is pleased to share the latest issue of Clean Energy and Climate Solutions Resources Roundup. In this issue, we cover:

• updates to Wilson Sonsini's Clean Energy and Climate Solutions Federal Funding Database. This month, the database features funding opportunity announcements (FOAs), requests for information (RFIs), and an opportunity classified as “Other”;
• our upcoming speaking engagements and recent client alerts including an analysis on the recent notice by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) providing further guidance on domestic content bonus credit amounts applicable under Sections 45, 45Y, 48, and 48E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended pursuant to changes authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA).
• updates to the Wilson Sonsini's IRA Implementation Tracker as of June 4, 2024.

Federal Funding Database: New FOAs

• FOA—Solar Technologies' Rapid Integration and Validation for Energy Systems (STRIVES)—The Department of Energy's (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), on behalf of the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO), issued an FOA, “SETO's Rapid Integration and Validation for Energy Systems (STRIVES).” The FOA will fund research and development projects to improve power systems simulation software tools and demonstrate new business models for distribution systems operations to integrate and optimize the value of inverter-based resources (IBRs) and distributed energy resources (DERs), including solar, wind, energy storage, and other technologies such as buildings and electric vehicles. The transition to a digitally-controlled, decentralized, and distributed grid will require novel methods for grid operations. These methods will take into consideration multi-party ownership and management of thousands of digitally controlled assets such as IBRs and DERs, including smart electric vehicle (EV) charging and home and building energy management systems.

Projects funded under this FOA will address near-term and long-term challenges in operating electric power grids with large deployments of solar energy systems and other DERs. This FOA has two topic areas:

• Robust Experimentation and Advanced Learning for new distributed systems operators
• Improved Simulation Tools for Large-Scale IBR Transient and Dynamic Studies.

The EERE expects approximately $31 million of total funding and anticipates making 12 to 15 awards. Individual awards may vary between $1 million and $3 million. Concept Papers are due on July 25, 2024, and full applications are due on October 17, 2024.

• FOA—Vision OPEN 2024—The DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) issued an FOA supporting the Vision OPEN program (Vision), which serves as an opportunity to advance transformative energy breakthroughs in critical areas that fall outside the scope of its technology-focused programs. The Vision includes three goals that are critical to achieve a sustainable energy and carbon transition with:
  1. greenhouse gas (GHG) free abundant primary energy, scaling existing primary GHG-free energy by at least 10x
  2. an intermodal energy superhighway that transports diversified forms of primary energy, uninterrupted, around the globe through multiple modalities other than just electrical power
  3. a carbon transition that sustainably meets demand for polymers and other materials due to 10-15 percent of current fossil fuel carbon is converted into diverse, non-energy products like plastics and asphalts. Each application must address one of three Subtopics under these goals and must also identify at least one Technical Category, both of which are described in the FOA.

ARPA-E expects approximately $150 million in total funding for awards that will range between $250,000 and $10 million. Mandatory Concept Papers are due on July 16, 2024, and no deadline has been provided for full applications.

Federal Funding Database: New RFIs

• RFI—Transforming Industry - Strategies for Decarbonization—The DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office issued an RFI to obtain information to inform a new DOE vision study, “Pathways for U.S. Industrial Transformations: Unlocking American Innovation,” which is identifying cost-effective and industry-specific strategic pathways to achieve a thriving U.S. industrial sector with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Input in four categories is sought:

  1. Industrial Decarbonization Challenges, Barriers, and Cross-Cutting Strategies
  2. Framework for Industrial Decarbonization Pathways
  3. Impacts and Evaluation Criteria for Industrial Decarbonization Pathways
  4. Net-zero Decarbonization Pathways for Specific Industrial Subsectors. Category 4 has six specific subsectors as well as a seventh general subsector request.

Responses to this RFI are due on June 10, 2024, and no information has been given regarding future, related funding.

Federal Funding Database: New Opportunity, “Other”

• Other—Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program—The Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for the Charting and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program (CFI Program) that was established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Funds are also being distributed under this NOFO from a variety of other related programs administered by the Department of Transportation. The CFI Program is divided into two separate grant categories: 1) the Community Charging and Fueling Program Grants ("Community Program"), to strategically deploy EV charging infrastructure, hydrogen fueling infrastructure, propane fueling infrastructure, and natural gas fueling infrastructure located on public roads or in other publicly accessible locations; and 2) the Alternative Fuel Corridor Grants ("Corridor Program"), to strategically deploy charging and alternative fueling infrastructure located along designated alternative fuel corridors. This is the second round of funding under this $1.5 billion program and approximately $800 million is available over the next two years. Applicants must be some sort of state/ local political subdivision, another local authority or organization including port authorities, or an Indian Tribe (as defined in Section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination Education and Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. § 5304). Applications are due through grants.gov by August 28, 2024.

Read the latest complete list of federal funding opportunities here. If you would like to receive alerts when the database is updated, subscribe here. As a reminder, refer to the white paper for a general guide to understanding how this federal funding works at a high level.

Wilson Sonsini Client Insights and Events

We remind you to read our recent alerts and newsletters on the latest updates and regulations relevant to the clean energy industry:

• Alert | Treasury and IRS Release New Safe Harbor Election for Domestic Content Bonus Credits
• Newsletter | Sustainability and ESG Advisory Practice Update, May 2024
• Event | Getting Real on the Inflation Reduction Act: Tax Credit Transfers, June 11 (Webinar) with Wilson Sonsini attorneys Nicole Gambino and Jaron Goddard as featured panelists.

Wilson Sonsini IRA Resource Page Updates

Wilson Sonsini’s IRA Resource is a single-source digital platform of relevant information related to IRA implementation. The resource page's "Implementation Tracker" provides the latest overall implementation status for each credit and bonus credit regarding their implementation as of June 4, 2024.