Amendment 000002: EERE is amending this Notice of Intent to revise the language in the introduction and topic area descriptions to better align with the most recent guidance from the Acting Assistant Secretary.
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The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “FY21 Bioenergy Technologies Scale-up and Conversion FOA.”
Building a clean energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. The Administration has laid out a bold plan to lead the world in building a clean energy economy, addressing climate change and achieving net-zero emissions no later than 2050 to the benefit of all Americans. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of disadvantaged communities.
In support of these Administration priorities, BETO is focused on developing technologies that convert domestic biomass and other waste resources (e.g. municipal solid waste, biosolids) into low-carbon biofuels and bioproducts. These bioenergy technologies can enable a transition to a clean energy economy, create high-quality jobs, support rural economies, and spur innovation in renewable energy and chemicals production – the bioeconomy. The activities funded through this opportunity will mobilize public clean energy investment in the biofuels, chemical and agricultural industries, accelerate the deployment of bioenergy technologies, and support achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.
This FOA may support high-impact technology RDD&D to accelerate the bioeconomy and, in particular, the production of low-carbon fuels for the aviation industry. BETO is focusing on applied RDD&D to improve the performance and reduce cost of biofuel production technologies and scale-up production systems in partnership with industry. By reducing cost and technical risk, BETO can help pave the way for industry to deploy commercial-scale integrated biorefineries and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hard to decarbonize sectors, such as aviation. The Program is focused on developing and demonstrating technologies that are capable of producing low-carbon drop-in biofuels at $2.50 per gallon gasoline equivalent (GGE) by 2030, as well as associated renewable chemical co-products to achieve this target. BETO is focused on biofuel production pathways that can deliver at least 70% lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum.
This notice of intent (NOI) is issued so that interested parties are aware of EERE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE will not respond to questions concerning this NOI. Once the FOA has been released, EERE will provide an avenue for potential applicants to submit questions.