Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Technology Commercialization Fund

In partnership with EERE and OCED, OTC launched the Solutions for Lasting, Viable Energy Infrastructure Technologies (SOLVE IT) Prize to empower communities to solve their energy-related challenges. The SOLVE IT Prize aims to enable innovative solutions for local energy-related challenges, promoting the commercialization of promising energy technologies.

SOLVE IT offers a total cash prize pool of about $5 million, with competitors able to win up to $730,000 each across three phases: 

• Phase 1 – Embark: Competitors with a history of productive work with communities are invited to identify a community, a challenge facing that community that can be addressed by an innovative clean energy solution, and a clear plan for engaging with the community.   
• Phase 2 – Engage: Embark winners will engage with their community stakeholders to develop the community’s vision for their future clean energy or decarbonization project. 
• Phase 3 – Establish: Engage winners will create Clean Energy Project Action Plans for carrying out at least one specific, technically novel clean energy or decarbonization project.  

See the May 2024 selections announcement here: DOE Awards Over $2 Million Towards Community-Driven Clean Energy Projects Through SOLVE IT Prize

See the December 2024 selections announcement here: DOE SOLVE IT Prize Awards $1.5 Million To Communities Driving Clean Energy Projects 

Learn more.

Please send questions to SOLVEIT@nrel.gov. 

In partnership with OCED, FECM, and EERE, OTC announced the Voucher Program in July 2023. 

Through this program, businesses and other relevant entities are provided an opportunity to work with third-party organizations to address specific commercialization barriers they face as they develop their technology and grow their business. The Voucher Program leverages DOE’s recent partnership intermediary agreement with ENERGYWERX.  

In January 2024, OTC announced 111 entities to receive support in advancing their clean energy technologies, valued at $9.8M. Read the announcement. 

In October 2024, OTC announced over 170 companies, tribes, and local governments to receive support to advance commercialization of clean energy technologies in the form of in-kind DOE-funded vouchers. Almost 60 organizations, including six National Labs, will provide this support valued at more than $20 million. Read the announcement. 

Be sure to join the ENERGYWERX ecosystem and receive updates by signing up at energywerx.org. Please reach out with questions by emailing ENERGYWERX at info@energywerx.org.   

In partnership with OCED and EERE, OTC launched the Manufacture of Advanced Key Energy Infrastructure Technologies (MAKE IT) Prize to catalyze domestic manufacturing of critical clean energy technology components, moving manufacturing facilities from planning to shovel-ready and enabling strategies for vibrant manufacturing activity in communities.     

This prize offered two tracks:    

• Facilities Track: U.S.-based entities committed to manufacturing submitted plans for establishing clean energy manufacturing facilities for eligible technology components or processes. 
• Strategies Track: To promote manufacturing activity, economic development, growth, and quality of life in their region or community, teams prepared a credible roadmap to establishing clean energy manufacturing activity. 

Learn more about the MAKE IT Prize awards: 

• In April 2024, DOE awarded a total of $4,500,000 to nine Facilities Track Phase 1 winners and a total of $600,000 to 12 Phase 1 Strategies Track winners. Read the announcement. 
• In June 2024, DOE awarded $700,000 total to seven Strategies Track Phase 2: Create winners. Read the announcement. 
• In July 2024, DOE awarded $2 million to four winners from the Facilities Track Secondary Timeline of Phase 1.Read the announcement. 
• In September 2024, DOE announced three winners of $5 million each throughout the Facilities Track of the prize for demonstrating they are ready to begin building a manufacturing facility that will produce critical clean energy components. Read the announcement. 
• In December 2024, DOE awarded $9,000,000 to two winners of the Facilities Track’s Phase 2: Shovel Ready, $1,250,000 to five winners of the Strategies Track’s Phase 3: Activate, and $1,000,000 to ten winners of the Strategies Track’s Phase 2: Create.  Read the announcement.

In partnership with OCED, OTC announced the Collaborative Alignment for Critical Technology Industries Lab Call to bring together stakeholders across industries to address challenges that result when people work on similar issues in isolation, inhibiting scale-up and replication. These lab-led working groups will collaboratively develop and begin to implement recommendations and best practices for resolving identified challenges.  

In September 2023, OTC announced two selected projects, which will accelerate commercialization in the clean hydrogen and long duration energy storage industries. Read the selection announcement. 

In partnership with FECM and OCED, OTC awarded four DOE National Laboratory-led teams to develop carbon dioxide removal (CDR) measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) best practices and capabilities that are necessary to enable CDR commercialization at scale. The four projects are working collaboratively with industrial partners to build an overarching framework for CDR MRV as well as advance MRV for mineralization, cement and concrete, and biomass CDR pathways. 

Selections were announced in May 2023. Read the selection announcement .    

In partnership with the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), OTC co-led a project with the Energy I-Corps team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to support the development and implementation of commercialization programming designed for awardees of the CESER Cybersecurity for Distribution Energy Resource (DER) Research, Development, and Demonstration (RD&D) Research Call.  

Inspired by the Energy I-Corps program, this project helped bolster participant knowledge and understanding of commercialization concepts and tools and learn about market needs related to their research.  Learn more.

In partnership with OCED, OTC is co-leading a project with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to enhance the usability of greenhouse gases, regulated emissions, and energy use in technologies (GREET) for industry. Creating a more accessible and comprehensive interface will assist in the commercialization of new technologies by making it easier to analyze potential emissions mitigation opportunities and the potential impacts of new technologies. 

In partnership with MESC, OTC is co-leading a project with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to support the development of data-driven and model-informed integrated industrial strategies for manufacturing and energy supply chain technology commercialization. The project will improve outcomes of IIJA provision activities and contribute to MESC’s catalytic industry strategy to advance promising energy technology manufacturing and supply chain commercial applications. This effort will combine and advance prior efforts into a holistic framework, capable of capturing cross-technology feedback and higher-level industry diagnostics.      

In partnership with offices across the Department, OTC leads development and maintenance of the "Pathways to Commercial Liftoff" reports. Each Liftoff report provides a common fact base of what it will take to successfully commercialize a given technology. The Liftoff reports’ descriptive fact base provides a data-driven approach that addresses knowledge gaps around critical commercialization barriers. The Liftoff reports are living documents that are updated on a regular basis as technologies move through the commercialization continuum and market dynamics evolve. 

Read the Liftoff Reports.