The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) would like to make you aware of the following funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Energy:

On April 12, 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) funding opportunity, which will award $25 million in funding for projects to enable communities to utilize solar and solar-plus-storage to prevent disruptions in power caused by extreme weather and other events, and to rapidly restore electricity if it goes down.

SETO will host an informational webinar on April 27, 2022, at 12:00 pm CT to discuss the funding program and the areas of focus. Register for the webinar here.

Projects will foster engagement and ongoing communication among multiple stakeholders such as utilities, municipal planners, emergency responders, community groups, and others, especially in underserved communities located in areas vulnerable to extreme events causing frequent energy and power service disruptions. In addition, projects will develop and demonstrate rapid energy restoration technologies based on the community resilience plan in order to increase the durability of photovoltaic (PV) systems.

These research activities will help increase the resilience of energy systems, which will help meet the current administration’s goals for achieving a decarbonized electricity sector by 2035. As extreme weather events become more common and place undue stress on our electricity infrastructure, solar and other distributed energy resources can help communities rapidly recover.

View the full Funding Opportunity Award (FOA) online here.