Department of Energy Announces Funding to Accelerate Weatherization Innovation

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced last week that it will provide up to $30 million to fund DOE's new Weatherization Innovation Pilot Program to accelerate innovations in whole-house weatherization technologies and services.

The program is looking to fund new projects that will deliver measureable improvements in the cost, scope, and energy savings of low-income weatherization programs across the country. The competitive funding opportunity is open to collaborative partnerships that can include the private sector, colleges or universities, utility companies, non-profit organizations, or existing weatherization providers.

DOE plans to select applications that can leverage federal funding with other private or public financial resources to grow and sustain the total funding available for low-income home weatherization. In addition, projects under the program should develop new delivery models, materials, technologies, or processes that can lead to long-term improvements in the efficiency of the weatherization market and in DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program. These projects will be funded with fiscal year 2010 annual appropriations.

The pilot projects will be evaluated based on the improvements they can deliver in the number of homes weatherized, annual energy savings per home, average costs to weatherize homes, jobs created, and average annual emissions reduced. Each pilot project will operate independently of established local providers in the Weatherization Assistance Program and should be designed to be replicated in other communities.

DOE anticipates making between 10 and 15 awards under this announcement and anticipates grants to be between $2 million to $3 million each. Projects are tentatively expected to begin in October 2010 and will run for up to two years.

For more information on this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), visit Grants.gov, or search the public opportunities on the FedConnect Web site for reference number DE-FOA-0000309. Applications for the FOA are due by June 2, 2010.

For more information on the Weatherization Assistance Program, see the Weatherization Assistance Program Web site.