NOTICE OF INTENT (NOI) TO ISSUE THREE BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE LAW (BIL): THREE FOAs FOR HYDROPOWER | DE FOA 0002773

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002773

This opportunity is a Notice of Intent (NOI) from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), specifically the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) acting through the Water Power Technologies Office, signaling that DOE plans to release three separate Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) focused on hydropower and pumped storage hydropower. The NOI is essentially an early heads-up to the public that these competitions are coming, so interested organizations can start tracking the effort and preparing. It is not the actual application package, and DOE emphasizes that details can change before the FOAs are formally issued.

The three planned FOAs are framed under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and focus on different but related goals. The first is titled "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Section 41006. Water Power Projects Innovative Technologies to Enable Low Impact Hydropower and Pumped Storage Hydropower Growth." Based on the title, this FOA is expected to support development, demonstration, or deployment-oriented work that advances newer hydropower and pumped storage approaches while reducing environmental and community impacts. The emphasis on "innovative technologies" and "low impact" suggests projects may be aimed at improving fish passage, reducing habitat disruption, improving water quality outcomes, enabling more flexible operations, lowering costs, or modernizing designs and operational strategies so hydropower growth can occur with fewer tradeoffs.

The second planned FOA is titled "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Section 41006. Water Power Projects Stakeholder Insight into Hydropower R and D Issues." This is oriented toward gathering and incorporating input from stakeholders to better define, prioritize, or address research and development needs in the hydropower sector. In practical terms, that kind of FOA often supports activities such as structured stakeholder engagement, data collection, consensus-building workshops, needs assessments, roadmap development, and similar efforts that help DOE and the broader industry identify key barriers and opportunities. The purpose is typically to ensure hydropower R and D directions reflect real-world concerns from utilities, developers, communities, environmental interests, regulators, grid operators, and other affected groups.

The third planned FOA is titled "Section 40334. Pumped Storage Hydropower Wind and Solar Integration and System Reliability Initiative." This one is directly aimed at pumped storage hydropower as a grid reliability and clean energy integration tool. Pumped storage can store energy and deliver it when needed, so the focus on wind and solar integration implies DOE is looking to improve how pumped storage supports variable renewable generation, grid balancing, peak shaving, frequency regulation, reserve services, and overall power system reliability. Projects under this theme often involve advanced operational strategies, controls, modeling and simulation, new market participation approaches, technology upgrades, or site and design concepts that enhance the value pumped storage can provide to a grid with higher renewable penetration.

From an administrative standpoint, the notice identifies DOE as the issuing agency (DOE, Golden Field Office) and lists the overall opportunity in the energy category under CFDA number 81.087. Eligibility is described as "unrestricted," meaning it is broadly open to many entity types, although DOE notes eligibility may be further clarified in the final FOA text. The opportunity is listed as discretionary and uses an "other" funding instrument type in the provided record, reinforcing that this posting is informational rather than a typical, fully specified grant solicitation. The notice also states DOE will not respond to questions about the NOI itself; questions are only taken after the formal FOAs are posted, at which point DOE will provide an official Q and A process.

For anyone tracking this opportunity, the key takeaway is that the actual competitions and application requirements will be contained in the three FOAs referenced by their numbers (DE-FOA-0002731, DE-FOA-0002800, and DE-FOA-0002802), and the authoritative place to monitor and retrieve the full documents is EERE Exchange (https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/). The NOI is mainly useful for planning purposes: it tells prospective applicants that DOE expects near-term solicitations covering low-impact hydropower and pumped storage growth, stakeholder-driven hydropower R and D priorities, and pumped storage efforts that strengthen wind and solar integration and grid reliability.

• The Department of Energy, Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NOTICE OF INTENT (NOI) TO ISSUE THREE BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE LAW (BIL): THREE FOAs FOR HYDROPOWER" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 19, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 31, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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