Technical Assistance

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy offers various technical assistance supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy. This technical assistance can include direct advice on issues or goals, tools and maps, and training. This in-kind support may be independent or in addition to direct funding.

Some select technical assistance offerings are listed below:

For States and Communities

Cross-Technology

  • The Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program provides tailored, knowledge-based assistance across the renewable power, grid, transportation, and buildings sectors. By bringing together innovative technologies, state-of-the-art modeling, and unique abilities to test clean energy plans before installing them in the field, C2C fosters community-led innovation by closing the gap between clean energy ambitions and real-world deployment.
  • The Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP) provides technical assistance and direct funding to help remote, coastal, and island communities engage in energy planning and identify solutions to increase their energy resilience. This multi-year, cross-sector technical assistance effort applies a tailored, community-driven approach, leveraging the expertise of regional partner organizations, national laboratories, and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) offices.
  • By supporting state-level programs that serve as a resource to their local areas, the Renewable Energy Siting through Technical Engagement and Planning (R-STEP™) program helps communities better plan for and meaningfully engage in developing large-scale renewable energy and energy storage projects.

Bioenergy

  • The Waste-to-Energy Technical Assistance for Local Governments program pairs national laboratory experts with local decision-makers on various topics related to resource and energy recovery from waste, including cost-benefit analysis, waste resource quantification, evaluation of technology options, and other topics of interest.

Buildings

Solar

  • The National Community Solar Partnership+ (NCSP+) offers free rolling technical assistance that provides the resources needed to swiftly and successfully implement affordable, sustainable, distributed solar programs that ensure benefits for all.
  • Solar Automated Permit Processing+ (SolarAPP+) is a web-based platform that automates solar permitting for local governments and other authorities with jurisdiction. This fosters rooftop solar adoption by making it easier for local governments to approve standardized rooftop projects quickly and safely.
  • The Solar Energy Innovation Network (SEIN) helps communities develop transformative approaches to adopting solar energy. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory offers targeted assistance to communities through SEIN as Innovation at SCALE (Solar Community Assistance for Local Equity).
  • SolSmart offers free technical assistance to local governments (including cities, counties, and regional organizations) to adopt nationally recognized solar best practices, saving municipal staff time and money while maintaining safety.

Vehicles

  • Charging Smart supports communities in adopting procedures and practices that facilitate the equitable growth of electric vehicles (EVs).
  • Clean Cities and Communities Technical Assistance includes the Technical Response Service, which can help people find answers to technical questions about alternative fuels, fuel economy improvements, idle-reduction measures, and advanced vehicles. In addition, Clean Cities and Communities make "Tiger Teams" available to help coalition coordinators, original equipment manufacturers, fuel providers, and others overcome obstacles to deploying alternative fuels and advanced vehicles.
  • The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation provides unbiased, free, and customizable technical assistance to help states, communities, Tribal governments, transit agencies, and school districts plan and deploy zero-emission fueling and charging infrastructure, as well as zero-emission transit and school buses.

Wind

  • Distributed Wind Smart is a national designation program that recognizes communities that have taken key steps to address local barriers to distributed wind energy and foster the growth of distributed wind markets.

Explore additional opportunities from DOE's Office of State and Community Energy Programs.

For Utilities and Grid Operators

  • Utility and Grid Operator Technical Assistance activities are designed to disseminate technical solutions that accelerate clean energy and transmission deployment in communities nationwide.
  • The Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) offers technical assistance to directly support stakeholders in improving interconnection practices and processes for electricity distribution and transmission systems. The technical assistance is specific to the interconnection of clean energy technologies, including solar, wind, storage, or EV charging facilities, or a hybrid integration of these technologies. 

Explore additional opportunities from DOE's Grid Deployment Office and Office of Electricity.

For Companies

  • The Onsite Energy Technical Assistance Partnerships (TAPs) provide direct technical assistance to industrial facilities and other large energy users with identifying and implementing technology options for achieving site-specific energy objectives.
  • Through the Better Buildings Water Savings Network, DOE brings organizations together to discuss and demonstrate successful approaches to conserving water in buildings, plants, and multifamily housing.
  • DOE's Industrial Technology Validation program objectively assesses the performance of emerging decarbonization technologies in industrial environments to explore their viability in real-world conditions. These efforts support and accelerate the deployment of high-impact technologies that will advance decarbonization of the industrial sector.
  • DOE's 50001 Ready program recognizes facilities and organizations that attest to the implementation of an ISO 50001-based energy management system. The program is a self-paced, no-cost way for organizations to build a culture of structured energy improvement that leads to deeper and sustained savings that does not require any external audits or certifications.
  • Facilities or organizations that achieve sustained excellence using their energy management systems may get certified to the Superior Energy Performance 50001™ program and achieve elevated levels of DOE recognition.

Explore additional opportunities from DOE's Better Buildings Initiative.

Additional Tools and Programs

Bioenergy

  • Analytical tools provide assistance with analyzing data and facilitating decision-making.

Geothermal

  • Geothermal maps identify renewable geothermal resources, possible locations for implementing various geothermal technologies, and actual and potential geothermal power generation sites.
  • Geothermal software and data model geothermal systems and economics and provide data related to geothermal technology and energy to assist with calculation and model construction.

Homes and Buildings

  • The Building America Solution Center provides residential building professionals with access to expert information on hundreds of high-performance design and construction topics, including air sealing and insulation, HVAC components, windows, indoor air quality, and much more.
  • The Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center is a robust collection of nearly 1,000 examples, strategies, and resources for residential energy efficiency programs.
  • The Building Energy Codes Program supports energy efficiency in buildings by developing and implementing model codes and standards. DOE also provides technical assistance to states and localities as they adopt and enforce energy codes.
  • The Building Energy Software Tools Directory provides building software tools for evaluating energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainability in buildings.

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells

Vehicles

  • Tools from the Alternative Fuels Data Center include calculators, interactive maps, and data searches that can assist fleets, fuel providers, and other transportation decision-makers in their efforts to advance alternative fuels and energy-efficient vehicle technologies.
  • EVGrid Assist helps stakeholders make actionable progress toward achieving their transportation electrification goals through validated data and tools, technical assistance and capacity building, and shared learnings from real-world experience. 

Water

Wind

  • Wind Energy Maps and Data provides states, utilities, and wind energy developers with utility-scale wind resource maps to locate and quantify wind resources, identify potentially windy sites within a fairly large region, and determine a potential site's economic and technical viability.