Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects Funding Opportunity Announcement | DE FOA 0002963

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002963

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE-FOA-0002963) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant competition run by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) in partnership with DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). It uses funding provided through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), to push carbon capture technologies past the lab stage and into real-world, integrated operations at existing facilities. The basic idea is to fund pilots that are big enough to produce credible operating data and reduce the technical and business risks that often prevent promising carbon capture systems from advancing to first-of-a-kind commercial demonstrations and, eventually, broad deployment.

This FOA focuses on "large-scale pilot projects," meaning projects that sit in the middle ground between bench-scale testing and full commercial-scale operation. Under the Energy Policy Act definition cited in the announcement, these pilots must be large enough to validate scaling factors, show how major components interact, and generate the kind of operational experience needed to design control strategies and reliable processes for the next step up. In practice, DOE is looking for pilots that can run under relevant conditions, tied into day-to-day plant operations, so that performance claims can be tested against the realities of variable loads, maintenance constraints, integration challenges, and real emissions profiles.

The opportunity is aimed at transformational carbon capture technologies for two main source categories: existing coal or natural gas power plants, and existing industrial facilities that are not primarily used for generating electricity. By explicitly including industrial and other hard-to-decarbonize sectors, DOE is signaling that it wants carbon capture options that can work beyond the power sector and can be adapted to different plant types and process conditions. The pilots must be located in the United States and integrated with commercial plant operations, which emphasizes that these are not purely experimental units on isolated test sites; they are meant to operate in the field alongside actual production.

DOE is making up to $820 million in total federal funding available through this FOA, with a maximum federal cost share of 70 percent. The agency anticipates making up to 10 awards, and the listed award ceiling is $136,000,000 per project. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which usually means DOE expects substantial involvement during project execution, such as active technical oversight, milestone reviews, and collaboration on reporting and validation. A key program goal is not only to prove performance, but also to position projects to attract significant private-sector follow-on investment for first-of-a-kind commercial-scale demonstrations.

A central theme of the FOA is de-risking: reducing uncertainty about performance, cost, operability, and impacts so that carbon capture systems become more financeable and easier to permit and replicate. The pilots are expected to generate high-value operational data that can verify commercial potential, including capture performance, non-CO2 air emissions, process models, life cycle impacts, costs, and scaling factors. DOE also highlights the importance of examining community benefits and potential negative impacts, with attention to issues like emissions, water use, and jobs. That emphasis reflects a broader expectation that projects will pair technical work with meaningful community engagement and a robust analysis of local risks and benefits, rather than treating social impacts as an afterthought.

Eligibility is broad and includes state, county, and local governments; special district governments; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)); and for-profit entities, including small businesses. The FOA was posted February 23, 2023, with an original closing date of June 21, 2023. Applications are submitted through the OCED Funding Opportunity Exchange (oced-exchange.energy.gov), and DOE notes it may release additional, similar FOAs in the future to accommodate technologies that reach the right technology readiness level on different timelines.

• The Department of Energy, Headquarters in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilot Projects Funding Opportunity Announcement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.255.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 23, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 21, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $136,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

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