Voucher Opportunity 5 (Recipients) - Commercialization Support (FECM)

Are you a carbon management or resource sustainability innovator and technology developer including, but not limited to, for-profit technology development firms, that needs commercialization support? This opportunity is designed to provide independent assessment of Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) technologies and practices for carbon management technologies and performance validation support for resource sustainability technologies See below for additional info about eligibility and timeline.

As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Technology Commercialization Fund, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), and Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), in collaboration with ENERGYWERX, is offering its Commercialization Support Voucher Opportunity (VO-5) to eligible companies to increase adoption readiness (with a focus on market acceptance) of clean energy technologies.

Note: In order to access the voucher provider list (the discussed .xlsx and .pdf files), you will need to successfully complete the eligibility form, which is part of your submission. Once the initial eligibility questions are successfully answered, you are permitted to access the actual application; and the .xlsx and .pdf files are located at the base of the application form. The eligibility/submission form can be found HERE.

The DOE Voucher Program builds bridges between U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses, technology developers or other relevant partners and third-party voucher providers to advance commercialization of innovative energy technologies. Voucher Opportunity (VO-5) addresses key adoption risk areas faced by carbon management companies, including:

- Independent assessment of Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) technologies and practices for carbon management technologies

• Perform and evaluate life cycle assessment (LCA) and/or techno-economic assessment (TEA) on carbon management technologies using existing MRV procedures and technologies, with sensitivity analysis to identify key areas of improvement for scale up.
• Investigate, measure, and quantify the uncertainty associated with existing MRV tools/practices for carbon removal, capture, conversion, and storage, or similar greenhouse gas reductions approaches that are being used today, with specific focus on assessing and quantifying accuracy, precision, cost, and scalability of quantification.
• Evaluation of methods and tools to assess the additionality of carbon management technologies and the uncertainty or reversibility of carbon storage mechanisms through both biotic and abiotic mechanisms.
• Third-party validation of LCA/TEA/MRV for carbon management technology and assessment methodology developers; especially in topic areas aligned with FECM programs and the Energy Earth shots.
• Third-party support for independent evaluation of community engagement and benefits plans. Focus areas could include participatory mapping with community members to understand what is unique about their community, including existing burdens and areas of cultural importance.
• Support for independent entities building capacity to provide verification services to the growing carbon dioxide removal (CDR) industry.

- Resource sustainability technology performance validation support

• Planning and execution support for field tests, including those for resource sustainability applications (e.g., methane detection and reduction technologies, advance remediation technologies, and mineral sustainability technologies).
• Evaluation of observed emissions (including non-CO2 GHG and criteria pollution) relative to presumed emissions factors, especially by using improved or novel measurement technologies.
• Evaluation of technology performance under certification-relevant operating conditions.
• Accelerated lifetime testing to test for failure modes and better understand durability.

DOE has selected and pre-approved a cohort of voucher providers offering a variety of capabilities you might be interested into. For this voucher opportunity, capabilities include:

• MRV Assessment
• Performance Validation
• LCA/TEA
• Community Benefits

When you apply, you will review the available capabilities and submit your preferences in the submittable form. If you find something that can be valuable to your company and that can enable your company accelerate demonstration, commercialization, and deployment of your product, please consider applying to receive that in kind support.

Voucher Projects: Expected voucher worth $100,000-$250,000 of work. Vouchers will be distributed as in-kind support, meaning that ENERGYWERX will directly reimburse the voucher provider for the work they have completed on behalf of the voucher recipients. Only work related to specific technology areas will be eligible to receive a voucher under this opportunity. List of eligible technology areas::

-   With FECM funding:

• Carbon Management
• Resource Sustainability

DOE anticipates issuing approximately 40 vouchers at this time.

Voucher Recipients: Limited to carbon management or resource sustainability innovators and technology developers including, but not limited to, for-profit technology development firm that are working to commercialize a prototype / product that fits a specific technology vertical of interest for DOE FECM.

This opportunity is limited to one submission per requesting organization. In the case of multiple submissions, all submissions but the one with the latest time stamp will be disqualified.

Voucher Recipients: How to Participate in VO-5

1. Review the resources from the October 26, 2023 IW/OSS
2. Review resources from the November 9, 2023 Office Hours
3. Download the Voucher Recipient Needs Request: Click Here to Download
4. Complete the Submission Form and upload completed Voucher Recipient Needs Request: Click Here to Submit (Submissions are due No Later Than November 16, 2023, 5:00 PM ET)

In order to access the voucher provider list (the discussed .xlsx and .pdf files), you will need to successfully complete the eligibility form, which is part of your submission. Once the initial eligibility questions are successfully answered, you are permitted to access the actual application; and the .xlsx and .pdf files are located at the base of the application form. The eligibility/submission form can be found HERE.

Pending availability of funds, additional submission windows may open in the future for this voucher opportunity.

This is not the only voucher opportunity currently available through ENERGYWERX. See below for additional information related to other voucher opportunities:

• VO-1: Pre-Demonstration Commercialization Support (OCED/EERE)
  
• VO-2: Performance Validation, Modeling, and Certification Support (OCED/EERE)
  
• VO-3: Clean Energy Demonstration Project Siting/Permitting Support
  
• VO-4: Commercialization Support (EERE)