WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), today announced approximately $6 billion in funding to accelerate decarbonization projects in energy-intensive industries and provide American manufacturers a competitive advantage in the emerging global clean energy economy. Funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, the Industrial Demonstrations Program will focus on the highest emitting industries where decarbonization technologies will have the greatest impact, such as iron and steel, aluminum, cement and concrete, and other energy-intensive industrial processes. Widespread demonstration and deployment of decarbonization projects within these industries is key to achieving the President’s goal of a net-zero economy by 2050 and will help strengthen and secure America’s global leadership in manufacturing for decades to come.
“Today’s announcement is yet another exciting step in the race to fully decarbonize our heavy industries, and will help drastically reduce harmful pollution while ensuring America’s manufacturing sector is strong and competitive,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “President Biden’s transformational investments in innovation and clean energy are supporting American industries as they create new economic opportunities across the country while leading the world in clean manufacturing technologies.”
The industrial sector contributes nearly one third of the nation’s carbon emissions. Today’s announcement represents the latest step in the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive approach to reducing emissions from across the industrial sector including by demonstrating decarbonization projects at scale in this decade—solutions that had previously seemed decades away.
The Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), in collaboration with the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) and the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO), manages this program and will provide up to 50% of the cost of each project. For this funding announcement, DOE seeks first-of-a-kind or early-stage commercial-scale projects and expects to award projects from the highest emitting industries involving cross-cutting technologies that have the greatest potential, directly or indirectly, to achieve significant decarbonization domestically and globally.
This funding announcement represents more than a $12 billion opportunity to dramatically reduce industrial emissions, which includes $430 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and $5.46 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act combined with more than $6 billion in projected private sector cost share. To maximize the transformative potential of these funds, DOE will prioritize a portfolio of projects that:
- Accelerate industry towards deep decarbonization;
- Spur follow-on investments for widespread adoption of the demonstrated technologies;
- Enable new markets for cleaner products; and,
- Benefit local communities.
Interested applicants will be required to submit a Community Benefits Plan to ensure they are meaningfully engaging with the surrounding communities; creating quality jobs and investing in the American workforce; advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; and supporting environmental justice. This will help ensure these projects are not causing harm but instead providing tangible benefits to communities that too often have been left behind.
Concept papers are due by April 21, 2023, and full applications are due by August 4, 2023. Read the full funding opportunity announcement here and learn more about the Industrial Demonstrations Program here.
