Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002788
The Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers and Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) 2022/2023 funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0002788) is a U.S. Department of Energy initiative issued by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) on behalf of the Building Technologies Office (BTO). It is designed to push forward practical, high-impact building technologies and approaches that can cut carbon emissions, lower energy costs for building owners and occupants, and improve how buildings respond to changing conditions on the electric grid (flexibility) and disruptions (resilience). The FOA anticipates investing a total of roughly $15.35 million to $45.2 million across multiple awards, using a cooperative agreement structure, which typically means DOE expects active involvement during the project period (for example, technical direction, milestone reviews, and coordination to ensure results align with program goals).
The BENEFIT FOA is organized into five topic areas that cover major opportunities for reducing building energy use and electrification-related emissions. Topic 1 targets heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), and water heating. The focus is on advancing materials, components, and equipment designs, while also addressing real-world barriers like manufacturing cost, installation complexity, and engineering constraints. In other words, the program is not only looking for performance improvements, but also for innovations that make advanced HVAC and water heating technologies easier and cheaper to produce and deploy at scale.
Topic 2 focuses on thermal energy storage (TES), specifically next-generation, plug-and-play TES products. The intent is to develop and validate storage solutions that can be installed with less hassle, deliver better cost and performance, and speed up market adoption in HVAC applications. This topic reflects the growing importance of shifting heating and cooling loads over time, so buildings can take advantage of cleaner or cheaper electricity periods, reduce peak demand, and maintain comfort during grid stress or outages when paired with appropriate systems.
Topic 3 addresses battery energy storage systems (BESS) for buildings and their connection to the grid. The FOA calls for development, validation, and demonstration of product innovations that reduce the cost and complexity of integrating batteries into buildings, improve coordination between distributed batteries and grid needs, and support building decarbonization targets. This includes the practical reality that batteries are often held back not only by cell costs, but by integration challenges such as controls, safety, interconnection, commissioning, and the ability to provide grid services reliably while still serving the building.
Topic 4 is aimed at plug loads and lighting, with an emphasis on integrating plug load controls with connected lighting systems in commercial buildings. The goal is to achieve this with minimal added cost and complexity, supporting broader building electrification and more intelligent energy management. Since plug loads (computers, office equipment, appliances, and miscellaneous devices) can represent a large and growing share of electricity use, integrating their control with lighting systems that already have sensors, networking, and control infrastructure is a strategy to capture savings without requiring a completely separate control platform.
Topic 5 concentrates on the opaque building envelope (non-window elements such as walls, roofs, and foundations). It supports development, validation, and demonstration of affordable, high-impact retrofit and diagnostic technologies for envelope improvements. This is important because envelope upgrades can lock in long-term energy savings, improve comfort, and reduce HVAC sizing needs, but they are often limited by high retrofit costs, labor intensity, uncertainty about in-field performance, and challenges in diagnosing where the building is actually losing heat or gaining unwanted heat.
Eligibility is broadly described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any clarifications in the FOA text. Individual project awards have an award ceiling listed at $2,500,000. The opportunity was posted by DOE's Golden Field Office, with a creation date of December 14, 2022, and an original application deadline of April 5, 2023. Applications are required to be submitted through the EERE eXCHANGE system, which requires applicants to register and create an account before submission. The FOA also notes that BTO is compiling a teaming partner list to encourage collaboration, allowing organizations with relevant expertise to signal interest to prospective prime applicants and form partnerships aligned to the five topic areas. For full requirements, submission instructions, and points of contact for both technical questions and submission issues, applicants are directed to the complete FOA posted on EERE eXCHANGE at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov.Apply for DE FOA 0002788
- The Department of Energy, Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Buildings Energy Efficiency Frontiers & Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) – 2022/2023" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.086.
- This funding opportunity was created on Dec 14, 2022.
- Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 05, 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 $2,500,000.00 in funding.
- Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.
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| Notice of Intent - DE-FOA-0002933 to issue Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0002934 titled Underserved & Indigenous Community Microgrids Apply for DE FOA 0002933 Funding Number: DE FOA 0002933 Agency: Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory Category: Energy Funding Amount: Case Dependent |
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