Federal Funding Fridays

10/25/24 – Midwest Wins Several Awards and more opportunities announced!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Midwest Climate Summit – workshop proposals extended! Now due Nov 4th!
  • Upcoming MCC Grant Trainings – click here for full descriptions
    • Dec. 13, 2024 – Grant Processes Overview (virtual)
    • Feb. 21, 2024 – Grant Ready Workshop
    • Cohorts to begin soon for grant development and grant management modules
    • Bonus! We’ll offer a day long training of Grant Processes or Grant Ready the day before the Summit, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Stay tuned for more details!
  • Region 7 Grantmakers website is live! Region 7 folks – subscribe for email updates to receive announcements about the grant application
    • RTI is coordinating Region 7 (Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri)
    • Nov. 8 is target date to release the application
  • Region 8 Grantmakers
  • Region 5 Grantmakers
    • Minneapolis Foundation – coming soon! (expected mid-November)

GRANTS & FUNDING SOURCES

AWARDED

  • MW States awarded 292 of the 654 USDA Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) Renewable and Energy Efficiency Program
    • Grant opp is still open, deadlines are December 31, 2024, and March 31, 2025
  • USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) Invests $1.5B to Advance Conservation and Climate-Smart Agriculture
  • DOT announced over $4.2 billion for 44 projects through the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) grant program and the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program. A total of 44 projects were selected in this round of funding, including projects that improve safety, mobility, and economic competitiveness, constructing major bridges, expanding port capacity, redesigning interchanges, and more.
  • DOE Advanced Energy and Recycling: $428 million for 14 projects to accelerate domestic clean energy manufacturing in 15 coal communities across the United States. Highlights include:
    • TS Conductor- Erie, MI – $28.2 million selection to establish U.S.-based manufacturing of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) conductors and other advanced conductors that enable a secure and resilient clean grid. The new factory will create 425 construction jobs and 162 operating jobs with wages above the local prevailing rate. 
    • Furno Materials Inc- Chicago, IL  – $20 million selection to construct a new circular, low carbon cement production facility. The facility will use recycled industrial waste materials as feedstock to make low-carbon Ordinary Portland Cement, reducing carbon intensity by 47%, and creating 80 total jobs with above average wages and benefits. 
    • RG Resource Technologies Inc- Lansing, MI  – $5 million selection to retrofit a manufacturing facility in Lansing to produce 120,000 units/yr production of their solar photovoltaic + thermal capture (PVT) system. Through this project, RG Resource Technologies plans to hire 160 workers in new full-time positions, with a goal that 64 of those positions will be filled from workers living in disadvantaged communities. 
    • More info on selected projects here
  • Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP): nearly $2 billion for 38 projects that will protect the U.S. power grid against growing threats of extreme weather, lower costs for communities, and increase grid capacity to meet load growth stemming from an increase in manufacturing, data centers, and electrification.
    • Indiana and Illinois –  Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative and Southern Illinois Power Cooperative will build new transmission feeds to loop transmission to 10 substations in seven counties. These substations face increasing outages from extreme weather events and tornados. Adding looped transmission will increase grid resilience and reduce outages by providing backup connections to additional substations. 
    • Full project list over multiple rounds here

Open Grants

  • Last week we covered the DOE BUILT Nonprofits Grant, see notes from October 18th for details. The deadline is November 12th.
    • Office Hours and Q&A October 30th at 2pm ET.  You can register here. 
    • The DOE/Techwerx is happy to come back to FFF between now and the deadline to answer any further questions if helpful. 
  • Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund – Coalition for Green Capital webinar notes on Communities Net Zero Accelerator
    • MCC’s notes on the 10/18 webinar
    • Coalition for Green Capital (CGC) Community Net Zero Accelerator information session
      • CGC will unleash a combination of investments and up to $90 million in grants to help communities with existing decarbonization plans. This initiative is targeting mid-sized communities with decarbonization plans. They are hosting their second in-depth webinar TODAY, October 25th to guide eligible applicants through the proposal process, covering key elements to highlight in your net-zero plan, aligning projects with the CGC Green Bank Toolkit, and outlining the application process and logistics.