The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing a new initiative to significantly accelerate adoption of sustainable clean and energy efficiency strategies in remote rural Alaskan communities. For the purposes of this initiative, ”remote or rural areas” include communities with a population of 5,500 or less that are not connected by an all-weather road or rail to Anchorage or Fairbanks, or with a population of 1,500 or less that are connected by road or rail to Anchorage or Fairbanks. Through the proposed competitive process, the Remote Alaskan Communities Energy Efficiency Competition is being designed to empower Alaskan communities to develop solutions for effectively advancing the use of reliable, affordable, and energy efficient solutions that are applicable throughout rural communities in Alaska and potentially in other Arctic regions. It is anticipated that DOE may have up to $4 million in technical assistance and other support through this initiative. The RFI will gather input from Alaskan stakeholders as well as others to help shape the design of the competition and ensure the goals and activities of the initiative are relevant to remote rural Alaskan communities.
The purpose of this RFI is to gather feedback from stakeholders prior to DOE potentially issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). This RFI is not a FOA; therefore, DOE is not accepting applications at this time. All responses to this RFI must be provided as an attachment (in Microsoft Word format) electronically to: AlaskaCompetition@hq.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm ET on October 30, 2015.