Voucher Opportunity 5 - 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.

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 technoeconomic 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 Earthshots.
• 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.

The first submission window solicits proposals from potential voucher providers. A second submission window will be open soon to solicit requests from potential voucher recipients. Pending availability of funds, additional submission windows may open in the future.

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 25 vouchers for the technology areas funded by FECM.

Voucher Providers: Including but not limited to independent engineering and consulting firms and testing/validation centers.

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.

Voucher Provider: September 26, 2023 at 5:00 PM ET

Voucher Provider Timeline

Phase 1 – Voucher Provider Capability Statement Submissions Open [August 29, 2023 – September 26, 2023]: Interested potential voucher providers should submit one (1) Provider Capability Overview.

COMPLETED Informational Webinar/Objective Strategic Session (IW/OSS) [September 12, 2023]: DOE will provide further details about Voucher Opportunities. Potential voucher providers can better understand the scope, scale, and intent of the Voucher Program and ask questions of the DOE staff. The virtual IW/OSS will take place from 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM ET.

September 12, 2023 IW/OSS Agenda (all times listed in ET):

2:00 – 2:15 PM ET: General Intro

2:15 – 3:00 PM ET: Voucher Opportunity Presentation

3:00 – 4:00 PM ET: Q&A Session with DOE and ENERGYWERX

COMPLETED U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will host Office Hours on September 19, 2023 to answer any remaining questions from potential applicants before the submission deadline.
Phase 2 – DOE Selection [October 2023]: DOE will review submissions based on relevance to the program objectives and will notify selected entities for next steps.
NOTE:  DOE may choose to meet with submitters or ask additional clarifying questions prior to selection.

Phase 3 – Negotiations [November – December 2023]: Subsequently, selected organizations will meet with ENERGYWERX to negotiate the scope of work, budget, timing, and impact.

Q: What are the eligibility requirements for voucher providers and recipients?

A: Please review the eligibility requirements for each Voucher Opportunity. In general, participation is open to any type of organization, unless specified in the Voucher Opportunity description.

Q: Are National Labs eligible to be voucher providers?

A: National Labs are eligible to apply as voucher providers in the new voucher program run by ENERGYWERX. Note that there are more voucher work coming in FY24 as part of DOE's Technology Commercialization Fund Base Annual Appropriations Core Laboratory Infrastructure for Market Readiness (CLIMR) through the "Open Voucher Call" project. These vouchers will exclusively focus on national lab voucher providers. See selection announcement.

Q: For National Lab providers, would the voucher be paid after work is completed, or would it be front funded?

A. If selected, the mechanism for national lab providers will be different than with private sector providers. Most notably, the labs would receive funding for voucher work directly from DOE via their M&O contract, not via ENERGYWERX.

Questions about ENERGYWERX

Q: What is ENERGYWERX?

A: ENERGYWERX is a neutral facilitator as a result of a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) with the Department of Energy. ENERGYWERX will be coordinating the collection of applications, disbursement of funds, and voucher management for the Voucher Program.

Q: How does it work for performers?

A: Performers receive a formal Business-to-Business (B2B) Research and Development Agreement (RDA) and Statement of Effort (SOE) as a sub-award (15 U.S. Code, Section 3715) from ENERGYWERX.

Q: What is an ENERGYWERX Informational Webinar (Objective Strategic Session)?

A: Interested participants join a virtual, open forum session to engage with DOE Partners, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and other potential applicants regarding the DOE’s desired focus area(s) of interest.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact ENERGYWERX: info@energywerx.org