U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydropower Technologies Office
President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Act will fund $10 million for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydropower Technologies Office (WPTO) subject area addition. They will provide this funding to advance tidal and stream energy systems. The total budget will be $45 million. In addition, the new topic area will support at least one tidal or tidal stream energy planning and implementation project in the United States. They seek to prioritize project leadership to community-based organizations or local or municipal governmental entities.
Success of community-led technical assistance programs
The success of community-led technical assistance programs is the basis for this new thematic area. Projects such as the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP) are part of this success. Also, this thematic area will help advance projects from energy resilience design to technology validation.
ESG criteria
Increasingly, ESG criteria are becoming part of companies and governments worldwide. An example of this is the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project, which through its various projects, has helped communities understand, assess, and optimize the potential of marine energy systems to support decarbonization.
Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project
Projects funded in this thematic area are intended to leverage technical assistance from ETIPP and other similar programs.
With the addition of this topic area, the WPTO funding opportunity will advance a comprehensive approach to tidal and stream energy development in the United States, ranging from funding community-led planning and project implementation to making the first large-scale investment in a tidal research, development, and demonstration site.
U.S. leadership in tidal
These critical investments will help advance U.S. leadership in tidal and stream energy systems development while meeting community energy priorities and developing the industry’s supply chain and workforce.
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