OCED Announces Notice of Intent to Fund $1.3 Billion for Transformational Emissions Reducing Technologies to Support Our Clean Energy Future  

WASHINGTON—As part of Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to fund up to $1.3 billion to catalyze investments in transformative carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies. This funding—made possible by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law under the Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program and the Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects Program—will help create good-paying jobs, reduce pollution to deliver healthier communities, and ensure America’s global leadership in developing the cost-effective emissions reducing technologies needed to decarbonize the nation's electricity generation and hard-to-decarbonize industrial sectors. 

The electricity generation and industrial sectors account for a large portion of U.S. carbon emissions. Successfully scaling carbon capture technologies—especially in hard to decarbonize sectors and heavy industries such as steel and cement production—is a key component of President Biden’s plan to combat the climate crisis and achieve a carbon-free economy by 2050. In addition to reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, these technologies will also help deliver clean air and other environmental benefits to communities across the country while revitalizing local economies.     

DOE estimates that reaching our nation’s climate goals will require capturing and storing 400 million to 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually by 2050. Commercial demonstration of advanced carbon capture technologies, integrated with reliable transportation and storage infrastructure, is necessary for the widespread deployment of these carbon capture technologies.  

OCED, in collaboration with the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, anticipates offering funding in the following three topic areas: 

• Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects (Topic Area 1): Up to $750 million for commercial-scale carbon capture demonstration projects integrated with CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure at up to one coal-fired power plant and up to two industrial facilities that advance technical maturity, reduce uncertainty in cost and performance, and increase the potential for the technology to be replicated and deployed at additional facilities.  

• Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects (Topic Area 2): Up to $450 million for large-scale carbon capture pilot projects that demonstrate transformative technological advances in carbon capture, enabling increased capture efficiency, reduced cost, and improved environmental performance. 

• Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program – Infrastructure Planning and Design (Topic Area 3): Up to $100 million for planning and design activities to support the development of networks that can share CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. This support aims to demonstrate how bringing different carbon capture projects together can reduce the cost for carbon capture and storage and enable more widespread adoption of carbon capture and storage by a broader range of emitters.  

This funding opportunity seeks to enhance the confidence of commercial entities in adopting CCUS technologies, broaden the market for electricity generation and industrial emitters, and reduce costs to expand the feasibility of CCUS implementation across facilities.  

OCED anticipates that the funding solicitation will be released in late 2024. Potential applicants may wish to register for the informational webinar on October 21, 2024. OCED is also hosting an in-person Industry Day on November 19, 2024 in the Washington, D.C. metro area to facilitate partnerships among eligible applicant teams. Please visit the OCED website to learn more about upcoming engagement opportunities related to this NOI.   

This forthcoming solicitation builds on OCED's existing carbon capture programs, including the Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program, that includes both demonstration projects and Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) studies, as well as the Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects Program.