Grants / Department of Energy / Golden Field Office

DE-FOA-0003186: PROGRESSION TO NET-ZERO EMISSION PROPULSION TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE RAIL SECTOR

Closed Closed February 12, 2024 Opportunity DE-FOA-0003186 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies (ASPECT) (DE-FOA-0003647). Status: Closes December 1, 2026 (24 days left). It is in our archive of Golden Field Office notices from 2023.

• Award ceiling$1
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeOther

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to any type of organization.

• Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"

More grants for nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses, businesses, individuals.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Renewable Energy Research and Development awards averaged $2.8 million; this notice allows up to $1 per award.
• Most of the program's money (30% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

Amendment 000001 - The purpose of this modification is to extend the submission deadline to February 12th, 2024. Please see the full Request For Information (RFI) document at EERE-Exchange.energy.gov. The U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization set the goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in the transportation sector – including rail – by 2050. This transformation requires coordination among all aspects of the rail supply chain including feedstock supply, alternative fuel production, locomotive engine manufacturers, safety implementation, customer demand, and government regulation. To set domestic rail on an ambitious net-zero emission trajectory, commercially viable, well-to-wheel net-zero emission line-haul locomotives are needed in the domestic fleet by 2030. Thus, an ambitious alliance is needed between the private sector, research institutes and regulatory entities to develop, demonstrate, and deploy net-zero locomotives and infrastructure together by 2030 to make net-zero propulsion the natural choice for railroads. The propulsion technologies under consideration for this RFI for transitional, interim use until 2030 are: biodiesel, renewable diesel, ammonia, methanol, hydrogen fueled internal combustion engines, and ethanol. The technologies under consideration for this RFI for mid- to long-term use are: hydrogen fuel cells, batteries (tenders or built-in), and direct electrification (catenary), or a combination of different technologies. Each alternative propulsion technology comes with its own set of regionally sensitive advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of this RFI is to aggregate knowledge from rail stakeholders to help direct actions regarding future propulsion technologies, infrastructure requirements, and coordination among key stakeholders to ensure that the rail sector is meeting or exceeding U.S. decarbonization milestones. DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is specifically interested in information on the rail sector stakeholder’s current alternative fuels trajectory, the driving forces behind it, and the key barriers to achieving this transition. Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to GreenRail@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on February 12th, 2024. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery.

Category: Energy.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, DE-FOA-0003647, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.