Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) responded to Concept Papers submitted for the Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects Program. Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this program will help de-risk transformational carbon capture technologies and catalyze significant follow-on investments for commercial-scale demonstrations on carbon emission sources across the power and industrial sectors.   

In February 2023, DOE announced an $820 million funding opportunity for up to 10 projects designed to further the development of transformational technologies that capture carbon emissions from existing coal or natural gas electric generation facilities and existing industrial facilities not purposed for electric generation. For the first stage of this process, OCED required Concept Paper submittals and reviewed 30 submissions, of which 19 were encouraged to submit a full application. Proposed projects by the applicants covered eight technological solutions and were geographically diverse. 

OCED notified those who submitted Concept Papers that they were either encouraged or discouraged from submitting a Full Application. This followed an assessment of Concept Papers based on evaluation criteria that included qualifications, experience, and capabilities, and the community benefits plan component. This process allows DOE to provide feedback to potential applicants to ensure they are producing the best applications possible and to better understand the types of final applications it will receive.    

While the Department will not publicly share the Concept Papers or feedback, applicants are free to publicly share their notice if they so choose. These encourage/discourage notifications do not preclude any entity that submitted a Concept Paper from submitting a Full Application, nor does it preclude further coordination among potential applicants. The Full Application deadline has been extended to July 7, 2023 at 5 p.m., ET, and DOE expects to select projects for awards negotiations in September 2023.  

For more information regarding the Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects Program Concept Paper notifications, please visit OCED’s Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects Program Notifications and FAQs webpage here.