The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) announced the selection of nine organizations—eight regional and one national—that will establish a network of Technical Assistance Partnerships (TAPs)...
Industrial Efficiency & Decarbonization Office
July 12, 2023
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Office: Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office
Available Funding: $23 million
FOA Number: DE-FOA-0002945
Description
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) announced the selection of nine organizations—eight regional and one national—that will establish a network of Technical Assistance Partnerships (TAPs) to help industrial facilities and other large energy users increase the adoption of onsite energy technologies. The organizations will receive up to $23 million in federal funding for multi-year technical assistance activities to accelerate the integration and deployment of clean energy technologies to drive U.S. industrial decarbonization, productivity, and competitiveness.
The Onsite Energy TAPs selectees will help facilities across the nation integrate the latest onsite energy technologies by providing specialized technical assistance, including initial site screenings, identifying onsite energy opportunities, offering more advanced analysis to support project installations, and more. The TAPs will have expertise to advise on a wide variety on technologies, including battery storage, combined heat and power (CHP), district energy, fuel cells, geothermal, industrial heat pumps, renewable fuels, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal, thermal storage, and wind power.
Topic Areas
IEDO’s selections were made from the following topic areas:
- Topic 1 - Regional Onsite TAPs: Funding for up to 10 entities to serve as regional Onsite Energy TAPs. Each TAP will represent a multi-state region and serve as the primary technical, market, and policy point of contact for end-users and other state and local stakeholders.
- Topic 2 - Onsite Energy Technical Analysis and Support Center: Funding for one national entity to serve as the Onsite Energy Technical Analysis and Support Center (TASC). The TASC will centrally coordinate technical analysis and programmatic activities of the Onsite Energy TAPs.
Selections
Total federal funding amount is subject to Congressional appropriations.
Topic 1: Regional Onsite TAPs
Selection: Pennsylvania State University | Mid-Atlantic & NY-NJ
Pennsylvania State University (PSU) will cover two TAP regions: Mid-Atlantic and NY/NJ. PSU will leverage their experience, expertise, contacts, and relationships in both regions and expand their technical offering to the breadth of onsite energy technologies. Experts from PSU’s Architectural Engineering Department represent the lead organization with partners from PACE University in New York City.
Selection: University of Illinois Chicago | Midwest & Central
University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) will cover two TAP regions: Midwest and Central. As an Onsite Energy TAP, UIC will provide technology-neutral feasibility assessments and evaluations of multi-technology solutions. UIC will engage with local communities, industrial energy users, utilities, state agencies, and others to identify the challenges to adoption of onsite energy technologies.
Selection: Houston Advanced Research Center | Southcentral
Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) will cover one TAP region: Southcentral. HARC will provide technical assistance to improve industrial decarbonization and resilience while lowering operating costs across sectors and providing co-benefits to the broader community. Key sectors include chemicals and refining, food processing, higher education, and critical infrastructure such as hospitals, wastewater treatment plants, and data centers.
Selection: University of New Hampshire | New England
University of New Hampshire (UNH) will cover one TAP region: New England. UNH will work to increase the adoption of onsite energy technologies in the region. Through the development of educational materials and outreach aimed at the industrial, commercial, and institutional sector, the TAP will engage with potential end-users and provide technical screenings for the feasibility of onsite energy technologies such as solar photovoltaics, battery storage, heat pumps, thermal storage, wind, renewable gas, waste heat recovery, and combined heat and power.
Selection: Washington State University | Northwest
Washington State University (WSU) will cover one TAP region: Northwest. WSU will focus its activities on the primary existing and likely onsite energy markets in the Northwest, including energy-intensive industries, energy-isolated communities, and large district energy systems. Objectives toward the goal will include market research, marketing, and outreach and engagement with current and prospective onsite energy users and market stakeholders.
Selection: Cascade Energy, Inc. | Upper-West
Cascade Energy will cover one TAP region: Upper-West. Cascade Energy and its partners will engage with regional industrial-sector end-users, manufacturers and vendors, energy utility partners, state and local government officials, and other key stakeholders to support increased deployment of onsite energy technologies. They will help interested customers identify viable projects with the greatest potential impact on their carbon emissions and facilitate needed coordination with technical personnel to install projects.
Selection: North Carolina State University | Southeast
North Carolina State University (NCSU) will cover one TAP region: Southeast. NCSU will support the decarbonization efforts of industrial facilities and other large energy users through assistance with adoption of onsite energy technologies. The team will advance the project’s goals under the TAP model through engagements that will address several challenges that hold back the development of onsite energy in the Southeast region.
Selection: Optony, Inc. | Western
Optony, Inc. will cover one TAP region: Western. Optony will build on their experience in hands-on detail-driven clean energy project planning, feasibility, and procurement management and advise on a wide variety on onsite clean energy technologies. Technical assistance will include evaluation of the end-user's goals and current state, operational and financial modeling, procurement planning and management, contracts, engineering review, and construction quality management.
Topic 2: Onsite Energy Technical Analysis and Support Center
Selection: University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut (UConn) joins DNV Energy Insights USA Inc., Analytical Energy Solutions, eSai LLC, Impact Energy, and RE Tech Advisors, LLC to establish and operate the national Onsite Energy Technical Analysis and Support Center (TASC) to accelerate deployment of clean onsite energy technologies by providing manufacturers and large energy users with unbiased expertise and analysis needed to deliver an equitable, clean energy future. The UConn team combines the requisite highly technical engineering capabilities and programmatic expertise to multiply the impact of the regional Onsite Energy TAPs.
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