Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience Program (RACER)

Federal Agency

Sub-Department

Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE)

Purpose

To advance solar and solar-plus-storage technologies that support resilience of electric power systems and the communities they support.

Applicant and/or Project Eligibility Requirements

Applicants may apply as individuals or as program teams/consortia. Projects must focus on at least one of five areas: [1] Photovoltaics (PV), [2] Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power (CSP), [3] Systems Integration, [4] Manufacturing and Competitiveness, or [5] Soft Costs. Projects must improve affordability, reliability, and domestic benefit of solar technologies on the electric grid.

Decarbonization Considerations

DOE is focused on 3 program topic areas directly: 1) Innovative Community-Based Energy Resilience Planning (Up to $1 million each) The development of energy resilience plans via robust multi-stakeholder participa-tion/collaboration; where appropriate, opportunities must be identified for solar-plus-storage deployment 2) Automation Strategies for Rapid Energy Restoration (Up to $3 million each) The development and demonstration of robust sensors/communication technologies that enable rapid identification of assets to re-energize a power system after an extreme event, including design/integration of automation procedures assisted by distributed solar 3) Innovative Solutions to Increase the Resilience and Hardening of PV Power Units (Up to $3 million each) Innovative approaches to PV system hardening, utilizing novel sensors, communications strategies, and data analytics to increase generation-side hardware resilience

Equity Considerations

Under all topics of this FOA, teams that include multiple partners are preferred over applications that include a single organization. Teams are encouraged to include representation from diverse entities, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) or Minority Serving Institutions (MSI), or through linkages with Opportunity Zones. To facilitate the formation of teams, DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Office is providing a forum where interested parties can add themselves to a Teaming Partner List, which allows organizations that may wish to apply to the FOA but not as the prime applicant, to express interest to potential partners.

Helpful Tips

The application involves two-phases: 1) a short Concept Paper due first; 2) a full application due July 25th, about 2 months after the Concept Paper deadline. Details for what to include in each phase can be found in DOE's Funding Opportunity Announcement.

Other Notes

Cost-Share Guidance: For R&D projects (Topic Areas 1-3), at least 20% of total allowable costs must come from non-federal sources unless otherwise allowed by law. For demonstration and commercial application projects (Topic Areas 2-3), at least half of to-tal allowable costs must come from non-federal sources unless otherwise allowed by law.