The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) announced the addition of a $10 million topic area to its proposed funding opportunity from President Biden’s landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to advance tidal and current energy systems, bringing the total funding to $45 million. This new topic area will support at least one tidal or current energy planning and execution project in the United States, preferably led by a community-based organization or local/municipal government entity.
This topic area builds on the success of community-led technical assistance programs, like the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP), and will help advance projects from energy resilience design to technology validation. Several ETIPP projects have supported communities in understanding, evaluating, and optimizing marine energy systems’ potential to support decarbonization. The project(s) funded under this topic area are intended to build on the technical assistance provided through ETIPP and similar programs.
With the addition of this topic area, WPTO’s funding opportunity will advance a comprehensive approach to tidal and current energy development in the United States, ranging from funding community-led planning and project execution to making the first large-scale investment in a tidal research, development, and demonstration site. These critical investments will help drive U.S. leadership in tidal and current energy development, while also meeting community energy priorities and developing the sector’s supply chain and workforce.
The updated notice of intent is available on EERE Exchange.
