Indian Energy Funding Opportunity Announcements

DE-FOA-0003402: Notice of Intent for Funding Opportunity Announcement No. DE-FOA-0003403, Tribal Colleges and Universities Planning for Clean Energy Transition - 2025

This Notice is issued so that interested parties are aware of DOE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this Notice is subject to change. DOE will not respond to questions concerning this Notice. However, once the FOA has been released, DOE will provide an avenue for potential Applicants to submit questions.

Through this planned Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the DOE Office of Indian Energy intends to provide financial support to Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) to plan the transition of their campuses to clean energy.

For purposes of the FOA, eligible Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) must be (1) institutions of higher education located in the 48 contiguous United States or Alaska and be (2) defined and eligible based on the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. § 1801(a)(4)), and the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. § 1001, et seq.), respectively, as follows:

“Tribal Colleges and Universities,” for purposes of the FOA, mean institutions of higher education which are formally controlled, or have been formally sanctioned, or chartered, by the governing body of an Indian tribe or tribes, except that no more than one such institution shall be recognized with respect to any such tribe;

including:

Those institutions cited and eligible for funding under section 532 of the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. § 301 note), any other institution that qualifies for funding under the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. § 1801 et seq.), and Diné College, authorized in the Navajo Community College Assistance Act of 1978, Public Law 95-471, Title II (25 U.S.C. § 640a note).^[1]

No recipient cost share is anticipated under the planned FOA.

The DOE Office of Indian Energy envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of grants. The estimated period of performance for each award will be approximately from two (2) to three (3) years. Under the planned FOA, DOE’s Office of Indian Energy anticipates making approximately $5 million available with awards that range from $100,000 to $250,000 for planning grants.

The DOE Office of Indian Energy plans to issue the FOA late Summer 2024. If Applicants wish to be notified when the FOA is issued, they should subscribe to the DOE Office of Indian Energy email newsletter list on its website homepage (https://energy.gov/indianenergy). When the FOA is released, applications will be accepted only through IE-Exchange (https://ie-exchange.energy.gov). NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. See the attached NOI for more details and the registrations needed prior to submitting an application.

This is a NOI only. DOE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

[1] See also Executive Order 13270 (July 3, 2022), as extended by Executive Order 13316 (September 17, 2003). Note: Although 25 U.S.C. § 640a note has now been omitted from the U.S. Code as being of special and not general application, Diné College remains an eligible TCU. See the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, Pub. L. 110–315 (August 14, 2008), §§ 945, 946 (establishing the Navajo Nation Higher Education Act of 2008 and reauthorizing the Navajo Community College Act).

DE-FOA-0003400: NOTICE OF INTENT TO ISSUE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT NO. DE-FOA-0003401, TRIBAL CLEAN ENERGY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT – 2025

This Notice is issued so that interested parties are aware of DOE’s intention to issue a Tribal Clean Energy Planning and Development FOA in the near future. All of the information contained in this Notice is subject to change. DOE will not respond to questions concerning this Notice. However, once the FOA has been released, DOE will provide an avenue for potential Applicants to submit questions. Applications will be due about 90 days after the FOA is issued.

Through this planned Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the DOE Office of Indian Energy plans to solicit applications from Indian Tribes, which include Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Village Corporations, Intertribal Organizations, and Tribal Energy Development Organizations to:

(1) Conduct tribal clean energy planning (Area of Interest 1);

(2) Comprehensively assess the feasibility and viability of deploying clean energy technology on Tribal Lands (Area of Interest 2); or

(3) Conduct clean energy project design and development activities for deployment on Tribal Buildings or Tribal Lands (Area of Interest 3).

A 10% recipient cost share of the total allowable project costs is anticipated to be required under the planned FOA. However, the DOE Office of Indian Energy may provide an opportunity for eligible Applicants to request a cost share reduction from 10% to 0% based on poverty rate and median household income of the tribal community relative to the statewide median household income.

The DOE Office of Indian Energy envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of grants. The estimated period of performance for each award will be approximately two (2) years to three (3) years. Under the planned FOA, DOE Office of Indian Energy anticipates making approximately $25 million available with awards that range from $100,000 to $2,500,000 depending on the Area of Interest.

The DOE Office of Indian Energy plans to issue the FOA late Summer 2024. If Applicants wish to be notified when the FOA is issued, they should subscribe to the DOE Office of Indian Energy email newsletter list on its website homepage (https://energy.gov/indianenergy). When the FOA is released, applications will be accepted only through IE-Exchange (https://ie-exchange.energy.gov). NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. See the attached NOI for more details and the registrations needed prior to submitting an application.

This is a NOI only. DOE may issue a FOA as described herein, may issue a FOA that is significantly different than the FOA described herein, or DOE may not issue a FOA at all.

DE-FOA-0003298: CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT ON TRIBAL LANDS - 2024

Under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), the DOE Office of Indian Energy is soliciting applications from Indian Tribes, which include Alaska Native Regional Corporations and Village Corporations, Intertribal Organizations, and Tribal Energy Development Organizations to:

(1) Install clean energy generating system(s) and/or energy efficiency measure(s) for Tribal building(s) (Topic Area 1); or,

(2) Deploy community-scale clean energy generating system(s) or community energy storage on Tribal lands (Topic Area 2); or,

(3) Install integrated energy system(s) for autonomous operation (independent of the traditional centralized electric power grid) to power a single or multiple essential Tribal buildings during emergency situations or for tribal community resilience (Topic Area 3); or,

(4) Provide electric power to Tribal Building(s), which otherwise would be unelectrified (Topic Area 4).

See Section III.A. of the FOA for eligibility information and Appendix A for the definitions.

Unless DOE approves a requested cost share reduction from 20% to 10%, all Applicants are required to provide non-federal cost share of at least 20% of the total allowable costs of the project (i.e., the sum of the federal share and the non-federal Recipient cost share of allowable costs equals the total allowable cost of the project). Cost share reduction requests of less than 10% of the total project costs will not be considered. If requested by the Applicant as part of its application, a cost share reduction from 20% to 10% may be considered based on financial need, specifically (1) poverty rate, or (2) median household income of the tribal community as a percentage of statewide median household income. (see Section III.B.2. of the FOA and ‘Application Forms and Templates’ for this FOA on IE-Exchange).

DOE expects to make approximately $50 million of federal funding available for new awards under this FOA. DOE anticipates making approximately 10 to 20 awards under this FOA. DOE may issue awards in one, multiple, or none of the Topic Areas.

See the FOA document for a full description.

All modifications to the Funding Opportunity Announcement are highlighted in yellow in the body of the FOA.

Modification 0001

Changes include updates to the following sections:

Section II.A.1. (Estimated Funding) – At the end of paragraph 5 for Subtopic Area 3.a. (Powering Essential Tribal Building(s), add a parenthesis after Building(s) and change $2,000,000 to $2,500,000 (page 30).

Modification 0002

Changes include updates to the following sections:

1. Executive Summary under Total Amount to be Awarded in Table 1 on page 1 – Change the approximate amount of federal funds from ‘$25 million’ to ‘$50 million’ and change the number of anticipated awards from ‘5 to 10’ to ’10 to 20’.

2. Section II.A.1 (Estimated Funding) – In the first sentence, change the approximate amount of federal funds from ‘$25 million’ to ‘$50 million’ and in the third sentence change the number of anticipated awards from ‘5 to 10’ to ‘10 to 20’ (page 30).

3. Under DOE Office of Indian Energy Requirements – Under the third bullet of the second paragraph (Post Award Reporting Requirements) on page 5 change “(one-week in duration plus travel days)” to “(typically five days in duration plus travel days)”.

IE-Exchange is designed to enforce the deadlines specified in this FOA. The “Apply” and “Submit” buttons will be automatically disabled at the defined submission deadlines.

Applicants that experience issues with submission PRIOR to the FOA deadline (in the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission), the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (ExchangeHelp@hq.doe.gov). The Exchange helpdesk will assist Applicants in resolving issues. However, those Applicants who are unable to submit their applications because they are submitting them at the last minute, when network traffic is at its heaviest, will not be eligible for assistance from the Exchange helpdesk.

Upon the issuance of a FOA, DOE personnel are prohibited from communicating (in writing or otherwise) with Applicants regarding the FOA except through the established question and answer process as described below. Specifically, questions regarding the content of this FOA must be submitted to: TribalGrants@hq.doe.gov not later than three (3) business days prior to the application due date. All questions and answers related to this FOA will be posted on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) webpage on IE-Exchange.

Informational Webinar:

An informational webinar was held March 14, 2024 to provide information on the FOA to potential applicants. View the webinar and download presentation slides here:

Clean Energy Technology Deployment on Tribal Lands – 2024 FOA Webinar | Department of Energy

Note: If you are having difficulty downloading Adobe forms (SF-424 and SF-LLL) under “Application Forms and Templates’, either (1) try a different browser such as Edge or Chrome, or (2) go to your browser ‘settings’ or ‘more’ (top right corner) depending on the browser and ‘clear browsing data’ and depending on the browser either select ‘cookies and other site data’ or ‘clear data’. For Microsoft Edge instructions, see Delete Cookies in Microsoft Edge. For Chrome instructions, see Clear Cache and Cookies from Chrome.