Funding Opportunity Announcement: Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF)

Office: Grid Deployment Office 

Funding Number: DE-FOA-0003096 

Funding Amount: Up to $450 million 

Description

On July 31, 2023, DOE’s Grid Deployment Office (GDO) released a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $450 million to support residential solar PV and battery storage installations and offer consumer protection and education resources. Potential applicants may include private industry, educational institutions, state and local governmental entities, non-profit organizations, and energy cooperatives. Through this deployment-focused funding, DOE aims to incentivize the installation of roughly 30,000–40,000 residential solar and battery systems. Qualified beneficiaries of the systems installed by selected partners will include very low-income, single-family households that are either located in areas that have a high percentage of very low-income households and experience frequent and prolonged power outages or contain a family member with an energy-dependent disability, such as individuals who need electric wheelchairs for mobility or those that use at-home dialysis machines.

In November 2023, GDO announced the following selectees to begin award negotiations for this FOA.

Topic Area 1 Selectees: Third-Party Residential Deployment (up to $481 million, announced 11/2/2023)

The following companies with an existing Puerto Rican workforce were successfully awarded a total of up to $481 million across all awards to deploy residential solar and battery systems for vulnerable households across Puerto Rico:

Applicant/SelecteeAward Status
Generac Power Systems, Inc.Awarded up to $200,000,000
Sunnova Energy CorporationAwarded up to $281,125,850
Sunrun, Inc.Withdrew from award negotiations 

These installations will support DOE’s Programa Acceso Solar, connecting up to 30,000 low-income households across Puerto Rico with residential rooftop solar and battery storage systems.

Topic Area 2 Selectees: Community-Sponsored Residential Deployment (up to $48 million, announced 11/2/2023)

The following qualified nonprofits and cooperatives were successfully awarded a total of up to $48 million across all awards for residential solar installations:  
 

Applicant/SelecteeAward Status
Barrio Eléctrico Awarded up to $31,000,000
Environmental Defense Fund  Awarded up to $6,000,000
Let's Share the Sun Foundation   Awarded up to $5,000,000
Solar United Neighbors, Inc.Awarded up to $6,000,000

Topic Area 3 Selectees: Beneficiary Education, Training, and Consumer Protection (up to $10 million, announced 11/29/2023)

The following qualified nonprofits were successfully awarded a total of up to $10 million across two awards to lead education, training, and consumer protection initiatives for households receiving solar and battery storage systems through the PR-ERF:
 

Applicant/SelecteeAward Status
Hispanic Federation Inc.Awarded up to $7,00,000
Institute for Building Technology and SafetyAwarded up to $3,000,000

For more details on eligibility and other aspects of each of the above Topic Areas of the FOA, please consult the Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE-FOA-0003096) at Infrastructure Exchange.

How to Apply

The deadline to apply to this FOA was September 18, 2023 at 5:00 PM AT/ET.

Additional Information

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