In its most recent newsletter, the American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona gave a status update for Department of Energy projects under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law/Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act.
ACECA reports only 11% of the $62B in DoE spending under IIJA energy funds will be distributed under state formula programs and that DoE funds are usually distributed more slowly than transportation and water project funding.
DoE is expected to expand existing programs and develop 60 new ones in the next five years. It will have to issue RFIs, develop and publish project strategies and follow up with funding announcements as information becomes available.
According to the newsletter, “The funding generally covers manufacturing, energy efficiency (residential and communities), power (grid upgrades and resilience, nuclear and hydropower maintenance), and commercialization of technologies (demonstration and research hubs, hydrogen, carbon capture, advanced nuclear, and rural demonstrations).”
ACECA provides a link to the DoE BIL frequently asked questions page dealing with distribution timelines, cross-agency engagement, union and “prevailing wage” requirements, supply chain constraints, the Building a Better Grid Initiative and several others.
For companies interested in the $7.1B available for grants and competitive solicitations for state, local and tribal government projects, application details and instructions will become available as various programs are developed. ACECA recommends signing up for notification subscriptions
According to ACEC, BIL/IIJA funding flows under state, local, and tribal formula grants include:
- Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants ($550M)
- Energy Efficiency Revolving Loan Fund Capitalization Grants ($250M)
- Preventing Outages and Enhancing the Resilience of the Electric Grid Grants ($2.5B)
- State Energy Program ($500M)
- Weatherization Assistance Program ($3.5B)
Lastly, ACECA recommends contacting major DoE offices, where users can find objective, strategy and initiative information and sign up for alerts, newsletters and other information.