News Secretary Granholm Officially Sworn In Jennifer M. Granholm was sworn in as the 16th Secretary of Energy on Feb. 25, 2021, becoming the second woman to lead the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Secretary Granholm is leading departmental priorities to combat the climate crisis, create clean energy jobs, and promote energy justice. The Secretary recently wrote, "The boldest climate agenda in our nation's history will require robust collaboration across the federal government, the fifty states, and the private sector." Learn more about Secretary Granholm's priorities. U.S. Department of Transportation Announces $180 Million Funding Opportunity for Low or No Emission Transit Vehicles & Facilities The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced the availability of up to $180 million in competitive grant funds through a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for FTA's Low or No Emission (Low-No) Grant Program. The Low-No Program helps eligible project sponsors purchase or lease low- or no-emission vehicles and supports facilities that use advanced technologies to provide cleaner, more energy efficient transit operations in communities across the country. This year's NOFO will prioritize applications with an environmental justice component as well as those that will support workforce development activities to help America's transit workers succeed. Eligible applicants for Low-No funding include public transit agencies, state transportation departments, and Indian Tribes. Projects will be evaluated by criteria defined in federal law and in the NOFO. Instructions for applying can be found on FTA's website and at Grants.gov by searching for funding opportunity "FTA-2021-001-LowNo." Complete proposals must be submitted electronically through the Grants.gov "Apply" function by April 12, 2021. Waste-to-Energy Technical Assistance Program Announced The DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are launching an organic Waste-to-Energy (WTE) technical assistance program for local governments. Waste streams, such as food waste, wastewater sludge, and others, represent significant environmental, economic, and social sustainability challenges for municipalities. Over recent years, BETO has funded analyses assessing these waste streams and various aspects of their management, such as existing beneficial uses and costs of disposal. This technical assistance program seeks to provide municipalities with the most relevant and needed data for their local decision-making. BETO is making funds available to provide up to 40 hours of subject matter assistance to municipalities on a menu of options including waste resource information, infrastructure considerations, techno-economic comparison of options, and equity assessments. A full list of options is available on the program website. All U.S. municipalities as well as tribal governments are eligible to apply. The Phase I application portal will be open from March 22, 2021–April 9, 2021. For more information, including how to apply, please visit the program website. Register to attend an informational webinar on March 18, 2021. Explore the Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards Policy Toolkit  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s new Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards Policy Toolkit is a valuable resource that aids communities in adopting policies to reduce the energy and carbon footprints of existing buildings. It is written specifically to inform and support state and local government decision makers exploring policies to reduce energy use and carbon emissions from existing commercial and multifamily buildings in their jurisdictions. The toolkit covers how to: - Plan and implement effective building benchmarking and transparency policies
- Learn about the emerging policy area of building performance standards
- Understand opportunities for cross-jurisdictional coordination on benchmarking and Building Performance Standards policies
- Access utility data critical to complying with benchmarking and building performance standards reporting requirements
- Connect with EPA experts who can deliver direct support for EPA's ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® tool, share best practices across governments, provide access to helpful resources, and offer technical assistance related to quantifying the benefits of energy efficiency and other policy support.
Register to attend a webinar introducing the new toolkit on March 17, 2021. | New NARUC-NASEO Reports on Microgrid Financing and Use Cases The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) recently released two new reports on design approaches and funding and financing options for states to consider supporting microgrid deployment. The reports include: New Compilation of Resilience Resources Available for States Federal Resilience Resources for State Energy Offices is a new user-friendly compilation of federally funded resilience guides and valuation tools. The resources, which can be used by local governments, include a fact sheet and a searchable excel table so users can match their needs with available resources. Making federal resilience resources easily accessible supports state and local governments with further integrating energy efficiency and renewable energy into resilience plans and disaster migration projects. For more information, please contact Virginia Castro at Virginia.Castro@ee.doe.gov. DOE has announced the 11 teams selected to participate in the 2022 Collegiate Wind Competition, scheduled to take place from May 16–19, 2022, at the CLEANPOWER Conference & Exhibition in San Antonio, Texas. The Collegiate Wind Competition challenges multidisciplinary teams of undergraduate students to develop a wind project plan based on market and siting considerations; raise awareness of wind energy in their local communities; and design, build, and test a model wind turbine against a set of rigorous performance criteria. Participants will integrate academic coursework with hands-on learning, gain valuable wind energy experience, and connect with today's industry leaders while preparing to enter the wind workforce. View the full list of selected colleges and universities. Video Tutorial for Understanding Land-Based and Offshore Wind Resource Maps The Wind Energy Technology Office's (WETO) WINDExchange initiative continues to publish maps of wind resources at 100-meter hub height to provide easy-to-understand snapshots of wind energy potential based on validated data specific to different regions of the United States. Funded by WETO and developed by experts at NREL, these maps depict the quality of available wind resources in different regions, which can aid preliminary efforts to understand wind resource availability in an area. A new video tutorial explains how to read these new maps, where to access them, and the difference between land-based and offshore wind resource maps. CHP Added to REopt Lite Tool DOE collaborated with NREL to add combined heat and power (CHP) modeling capabilities to the REopt Lite tool. Facilities can now model and size standalone CHP systems, compare CHP to renewable energy and battery storage options, or consider all three of these systems simultaneously. This update also includes several other new features, such as emissions accounting and thermal energy storage. REopt Lite is a free online tool that provides site-specific technoeconomic optimization and resilience analysis for grid-connected solar photovoltaics (PV), wind, and battery storage. View the fact sheet to learn more, and stay tuned for additional updates coming soon. Share Your Feedback on the Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD) Tool  | | The Low-Income Energy Affordability Data (LEAD) Tool team is actively welcoming your feedback to learn how to improve the online, interactive platform for all users. The LEAD Tool is designed to help states, communities, and other stakeholders create better strategies and programs by improving their understanding of low- and moderate-income housing and energy characteristics. The LEAD team will use feedback from users to modify and create new features for the tool. To learn more or submit your feedback, please email LEAD.Tool@ee.doe.gov. | Upcoming SLOPE Webinars Dispersed, unintegrated, and sometimes inaccessible data can make data-driven energy planning too expensive or time-intensive for many state and local governments to pursue. To confront this issue, the State and Local Planning for Energy (SLOPE) Platform integrates and delivers data on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and (coming in Spring 2021) sustainable transportation into an easy-to-access online platform to enable data-driven state and local energy planning. Learn more about SLOPE or participate in shaping the future of SLOPE via upcoming webinars: Leveling the SLOPE—Helping State and Local Governments Reach their Energy Goals March 16, 2021, 3–4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) This webinar will demonstrate SLOPE's functionality and feature how Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is utilizing SLOPE in its energy planning and decision-making processes. Register for the webinar to learn how SLOPE can assist your jurisdiction in achieving its energy and climate goals and support your transition to a clean energy economy. Seeking Stakeholder Input on Future SLOPE Enhancements March 30, 2021, 3–4:30 p.m. EST April 8, 2021, 1:30–3 p.m. EST DOE and NREL are hosting two webinars to gather feedback on additional SLOPE features and functionality that can support your jurisdiction. One of the additions to SLOPE is an interactive "scenario planner" that could model and visualize the energy, cost, and emissions impacts of various energy scenarios based on user-selected inputs. Register below for one of the two feedback sessions at the time most convenient for you (content will be the same across both webinars): -
Register for the Tuesday, March 30, 2021, webinar. -
Register for the Thursday, April 8, 2021, webinar. Cleaning Up with Solar Energy: A Webinar March 25, 2021, 3 p.m. EST Join DOE Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Kelly Speakes-Backman and Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) Director Dr. Becca Jones-Albertus for SETO's next stakeholder webinar: 100% Clean: How DOE's Solar Investments Will Help Achieve Ambitious Decarbonization Goals. Topics will include priorities for the coming year and what lies ahead for solar research and development. Send your questions to solar@ee.doe.gov and get them answered live. Register for the webinar. Register for the 2021 Better Buildings Summit: Virtual Leadership Symposium May 17–20, 2021 Registration is now open for the Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit, which will be held virtually from May 17–20, 2021, and is free to attend. This annual event features plenaries, sector meetups, interactive workshops, special events, and engaging and informative sessions. Come engage with experts on a variety of topics, including technology validation, workforce development, energy burden, carbon reduction, financing, and resilience within communities and critical facilities. View the full detailed schedule and session descriptions to plan ahead, and stay tuned for more information about speakers and special events. Register for the Better Buildings, Better Plants Virtual Summit. 'Maine Won't Wait': A Four-Year Plan for Climate Action Released by the Maine Climate Council: The State of Maine has released a comprehensive four-year climate action plan that sets aggressive targets for reducing carbon emissions through a series of eight strategies including making buildings more energy efficient. Among the goals, the plan calls for doubling the number of homes and businesses weatherized so that at least 17,500 additional homes and businesses are weatherized by 2025, including at least 1,000 low-income units per year. In all, the goal is to have at least 35,000 homes and businesses weatherized by 2030. Burlington Hands Out $500,000 in Energy Efficiency Rebates: As part of Burlington, Vermont's "green stimulus package"—an effort to encourage local spending while addressing climate change during COVID-19—the city has spent $500,000 in energy efficiency incentive rebates. The stimulus program was launched in April 2020 and included $800,000 in rebates to homeowners and retailers to encourage transitions to more energy-efficient appliances, heating systems, or cars. Incentives have helped with installing 175 heat pumps in Burlington homes, among other energy improvements. Delaware's Commercial PACE Program Expands to Kent and Sussex Counties, Completes Statewide Program: Eligible commercial and industrial property owners in all three of Delaware's counties are now able to access commercial property assessed clean energy (PACE). Delaware's program is designed to help qualifying commercial, industrial, agricultural, nonprofit, and multifamily property owners access long-term financing for the installation of qualifying energy improvements. The Delaware Sustainable Energy Utility, which manages the state's program, is a Partner in DOE's Commercial PACE Working Group. Learn about what types of EERE funding are available for state and local governments. To view all open funding opportunity announcements, access:  | 
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