OCED has developed a suite of programs designed to be flexible and responsive to current and future needs around technology commercialization:

In collaboration with the Office of Technology Transitions and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, OCED announced a $30M prize competition, called MAKE IT, to boost domestic manufacturing and ensure a robust, secure supply chain of critical clean energy technology components. The MAKE IT Prize is spread over two tracks:

• Facilities Track: Each winner can receive up to $5M to get their manufacturing facility shovel-ready.
• Strategies Track: Each winner can receive up to $250K if they develop a roadmap to promote a clean energy manufacturing activity in their region and show interest from one entity considering a new facility. View the Phase 1 winners here.

OCED, in collaboration with the Office of Technology Transitions and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is making nearly $30M available to small businesses, authorities having jurisdiction, and other non-traditional partners needing commercialization support in the form of vouchers for third-party subject matter expertise, access to testing facilities or to entities providing industry-accepted certifications needed to enter the market and deploy new technologies. The voucher program includes three opportunities and is intended to make it easy for entities to take advantage of these funds, with a streamlined application process and simplified contracting mechanism executed through DOE’s recent partnership intermediary agreement with ENERGYWERX.

OCED is currently offering three voucher opportunities, each with a specific goal and intended for a specific group of stakeholders. Please review eligibility criteria and funding available for each opportunity here at the ENERGYWERX website.

• Pre-Demonstration Commercialization Support
• Performance Validation, Modeling, and Certification Support
• Clean Energy Demonstration Project Siting/Permitting Support

OCED, in collaboration with the Office of Technology Transitions, announced $15.5 million for two projects from the Collaborative Alignment for Critical Technology Industries Lab Call for DOE National Laboratories.

The projects selected for negotiation will establish lab-led industry and stakeholder working groups that will collaboratively identify industry-wide adoption challenges and develop and begin to implement recommendations and best practices for their resolution. The lab call is focused on industry alignment for clean hydrogen and long duration energy storage technologies.

Learn more about these projects.

The GREET (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies) model is used to calculate the lifecycle of greenhouse gas emissions.  Developed by Argonne National Lab, GREET helps industries, government and academia get a complete picture of the energy and emissions impacts of different fuel pathways, materials, and technologies, including clean hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, and batteries.  

OCED, in collaboration with the Office of Technology Transitions, is making $2M available to Argonne National Lab to develop the next generation of the GREET model with structured databases, enhanced functionality, and intuitive user-friendly interfaces for individual modules.  

OCED, in collaboration with the Office of Technology Transitions and the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, is investing $15M to accelerate the commercialization of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies with advanced measurement, reporting and validation (MRV) capabilities.  

Four projects led by DOE National Laboratories and supported by more than 50 industry stakeholders, aim to develop a harmonized MRV framework, formulate best practices, build up capabilities, and implement robust MRV practices with industry partners, government agencies, and other relevant stakeholders. These projects will also increase trust and transparency among CDR practitioners, buyers, and companies. Learn more about these projects. 

In collaboration with the Office of Technology Transitions and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, OCED announced a $5M prize competition, called SOLVE IT, to support innovative local clean energy solutions. The prize awards organizations with a demonstrated history of community-based initiatives to help communities find solutions to their energy challenges.

Through the prize, competitors will work collaboratively with stakeholders interested in community-scale (e.g., neighborhood, town, or city scale) clean energy strategic planning to engage their communities, build a network of support for clean energy projects, and develop plans for carrying out energy projects that address their energy challenges.

In June 2023, OCED issued a Request For Information (RFI) on Opportunities for Pilot-Scale Operational Validation to help inform a potential program to support operational validation of pilot-scale clean energy technology components and subsystems.

Specifically, DOE was looking for insights on the following: 

• Funding amount needed for a typical pilot-scale validation project
• Preferred type of funding mechanism and application process
• Needs for technical, business, and commercialization assistance
• Recommendations on how to ensure the program can be accessed by a diverse pool of applicants and reduce barriers to participation of disadvantaged businesses in the clean energy industry ecosystem
• Opportunities to ensure the program can benefit every American and every community

OCED received a robust response to the RFI in support of a potential small business program to fund pilot-scale projects that can catalyze future commercial demonstrations. The 83 responses received were largely from small businesses and industry trade groups representing hundreds more businesses. Read the full RFI summary here.