DOE Releases 2023 Technology Commercialization Fund Collaborative Alignment for Critical Technology Industries Solicitation

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is calling for applications for the Fiscal Year 2023 Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) Collaborative Alignment for Critical Technology Industries.

DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), in partnership with the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), will make up to $15 million in funding available for DOE national laboratories to bring together stakeholders across the clean hydrogen and long duration energy storage (LDES) industries to facilitate discussion around divergent practices, identify commercialization challenges, and work collaboratively to develop and begin to implement recommendations and best practices for resolving challenges that arise from many entities doing similar work in isolation.

Read the Lab Call on OCED Exchange.

This lab call will bring together companies, academics, utility commissions, and other stakeholders in the clean hydrogen and LDES industries to breakdown silos and develop and implement actionable strategies for addressing common challenges that may hamper the development of these industries. Creating this network can help improve collaboration and facilitate engagement well into the future.

Previous analyses such as DOE’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff reports have identified commercialization challenges preventing demonstration and liftoff for clean energy technologies. This funding program aims to address commercialization challenges that arise when many entities working in similar areas work in isolation which can result in increased costs, often for nonrecurring engineering and design efforts, and can prevent developing form factors, components, and processes that enable fast replication and deployment. Examples of these challenges include integrating components and subsystems from different entities working separately into large-scale projects, or challenges arising from using varied terminologies. Identifying the best solutions to these issues requires collaboration to assess the benefits, drawbacks, and tradeoffs associated with any given approach.

The lab call is funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), as part of the DOE Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF). OTT expects to make one award of $3 to $10 million per technology area (not including cost-share). Funded projects will be led by DOE national laboratories with broad stakeholder participation from public and private organizations across the clean hydrogen and LDES industries.

Applicants should consider the teaming elements needed to create a comprehensive and expansive project. OTT encourages clean hydrogen and long duration energy storage stakeholders to partner with national labs to address commercialization challenges.  

Prior to submitting a full application for this opportunity, a brief, mandatory concept paper is due on April 28, 2023, at 3 p.m. ET.

Read and apply for this Technology Commercialization Fund Collaborative Alignment for Clean Technology Industries Lab Call on OCED Exchange.

Topic Areas

There are two topic areas for this lab call:

1. Collaborative Alignment for Clean Hydrogen: Cross-industry standard operating procedures and component interoperability will be critical to accelerating project development and reducing costs in clean hydrogen technologies. Potential areas of interest to consider include but are not limited to equipment and manufacturing; production; distribution; market barriers; safety.
2. Collaborative Alignment for Long Duration Energy Storage: Finding ways to generate economies of scale and manufacturing improvements that can improve performance and cost curves and finding ways to enable the value of LDES systems to be better realized within markets and jurisdictions can help improve commercialization outcomes for LDES. Potential areas of interest to consider include but are not limited to common technology; regulatory hurdles; soft costs; balance of system costs; security; and safety.

Working collaboratively to develop recommendations and strategies for addressing these challenges is expected to enable large-scale projects and promote replication to help accelerate commercialization and liftoff, as well as catalyze an enduring industry community of practice.

DOE strongly encourages projects that bring together multiple labs to leverage diverse lab capabilities, avoid duplication of effort, and ensure the strongest possible applications are put forward.

Webinar

OTT will host a webinar on April 4, 2023, at 2 p.m. ET to discuss the funding program, areas of focus, and provide an opportunity to facilitate inter-lab teaming.

Register for the informational webinar to learn more.

Teaming Partner List

DOE anticipates that meeting project goals will require multi-lab projects with significant industry engagement and partnership. To expedite external partnerships in support of this lab call, DOE will compile a teaming partner list to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The list allows organizations who may wish to participate on an application to express their interest to national lab applicants and to explore potential partnerships.

Updates to the Teaming Partner List will be available on OTT Exchange. The Teaming Partner List will be regularly updated to reflect new teaming partners who provide their organization’s information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should find the Teaming Partner List for this solicitation (TPL-0000014) on OCED Exchange and submit the following information:

• Organization name
• Organization type
• Website
• Contact name
• Contact address
• Contact email
• Contact phone
• Area of expertise
• Brief description of capabilities
• Applicable topic and subtopic.

Please refer to the Manuals section on Exchange for more detailed instructions on using the Teaming Partner List.

Disclaimer: By submitting a request to be included on the Teaming Partner List, the requesting organization consents to the publication of the submitted information. By enabling and publishing the Teaming Partner List, DOE is not endorsing, sponsoring, or otherwise evaluating the qualifications of the individuals and organizations that are identifying themselves for placement on this Teaming Partner List. DOE will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any applicants or requesting organizations for the development of such information.

Key Dates

Additional Information

• For questions about this lab call, contact [email protected]
• Questions related to the registration process and use of the Exchange website should be submitted to: [email protected]
• Learn more about OTT’s Technology Commercialization Fund
• Sign up for the OTT newsletter to stay current with the latest office news and funding programs