The California Energy Commission is seeking applications to provide financial assistance to help clean energy entrepreneurs successfully advance their emerging best-of-class innovative technology to the Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) stage.
Donor Name: California Energy Commission
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 07/28/2022
Size of the Grant: $3,000,000
Details:
LRIP is the first step in making the transition from highly customized hand-built prototypes, which are used for performance testing and vetting the production process, to the final mass-produced end product produced in the Full-Rate Production phase.
Any direct manufacturing activities and any pilot production lines that are established as a result of activities funded under this solicitation must be located in California.
This solicitation is part of the California Energy Commission’s ongoing strategy to foster and support clean energy entrepreneurship across the state. This solicitation will provide funding to help clean energy start-up companies reach a Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) 8.
Funding Information
There is up to $40,834,000 available for grants awarded under this solicitation. The minimum funding amount for each project is $1,000,000. The maximum funding amount is $3,000,000. This solicitation will include two application rounds. Up to $15,834,000 is available for Round 1 applications and up to $25,000,000 is available for Round 2 applications. Round 2 funding is contingent on approval of the CEC’s EPIC 4 Investment Plan by the CPUC and budget authorization by the California State Legislature.
Eligible Technology Categories
- Energy Efficiency
- Solid-state lighting
- High-efficiency motors
- Non-vapor compression cooling and heating
- Advanced materials and coatings for fenestration and building envelopes.
- Photonic computing
- Energy-efficient desalination and wastewater reuse
- End-use Electrification
- Electrochemical production of industrial products
- High-power electric drive systems for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle applications
- Wide Band Gap semiconductor devices for efficient power transfer
- Advanced EV charging technologies (i.e. high-power charging, wireless charging)
- Next-generation electric heat pumps
- Energy Storage
- Advanced Lithium Batteries
- Non-lithium electrochemical storage using earth-abundant materials
- Thermal storage
- Battery repurposing and recycling technologies
- Zero- and Negative Carbon Emissions Electric Generation (Renewable Generation)
- Emerging thin-film solar PV
- Novel mounting systems and structures for PV systems
- Enabling technologies for green hydrogen applications in the power sector
- Offshore wind and wave technology components
- Solid-state energy harvesting
Eligibility Criteria
This solicitation requires the prime applicant to be a for-profit commercial entity or individual with the rights to commercialize the intellectual property being advanced under the proposed project. The following entities are not eligible to be prime applicants for projects under this solicitation:
- Local publicly owned electric utilities
- Public and private universities
- National Labs
- Utilities
- Private non-profit research organizations, and
- End-use customers of the proposed technology.
This solicitation is open to all entities with the exception of local publicly owned electric utilities and entities identified above. In accordance with CPUC Decision 12-05-037, funds administered by the CEC may not be used for any purposes associated with local publicly owned electric utility activities.
For more information, visit EPIC Program.
