ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Grant Processes Overview 1-Day Workshop is January 24, 2025 in Des Moines, IA at the City of Des Moines Municipal Services Center. Check our Grant Training page for more info (and for future free trainings)! 7 spots remain! You can register here!
- Summit early bird registration is still open. April 30 – May 2, 2025 in Madison, WI–we hope to see you there!
- IRS guidance on Domestic Content Waivers for nonprofit organizations and governmental entities investing in clean energy!
- Challenge: Nonprofit organizations (like municipal utilities) must plan clean energy projects years in advance.
- Problem: The original IRA rules required meeting domestic content requirements at the start of construction to qualify for tax credits.
- Impact: This created uncertainty and discouraged projects due to potential supply chain limitations.
- Resolution! The new deadline to be able to ask for a domestic content waiver is now January 1, 2027. So long as your project starts construction prior to January 1, 2027, you can show the IRS that the domestic supply chain couldn’t support the clean energy project, or would have made it prohibitively expensive, and still get the tax credit portion of the project using direct pay.
AWARDS
- Congratulations to the Oregon School District and Business Manager Andy Weiland for receiving the first Elective Pay credit check received by a school or local government in Wisconsin (as far as we know)!
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
- EPA’s UPLIFT Climate and Environmental Community Action Grant
- EPA announced $2.5 million in funding to support the collaborative work of communities and institutions of higher education to advance community-driven projects, strengthen climate resilience and build capacity for communities to tackle environmental and climate challenges.
- Eligible applicants include a partnership between a Community-Based Organization (CBO) and an Institution of Higher Education (IHEs).
- For more info, register for the upcoming webinar Jan. 9th here.
- Deadline to apply, Feb. 25, 2025
- Community Microgrid Assistance Partnership (C-MAP) (for SD, ND, KS, NE)
- Applications are now open. View program details below and apply on sam.gov by Jan. 31, 2025.
- DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the Solar with Wildlife and Ecosystem Benefits 2 (SolWEB2) notice of funding opportunity; funding up to $11 million for research to make large-scale solar energy more wildlife-friendly. This includes projects that improve solar development on agricultural land, known as agrivoltaics.
- The Community Energy Connectors Initiative (a part of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program.)
- Aims to support 5-10 regional organizations that will serve as hubs to foster a local ecosystem to support sustained energy efficiency, conservation, and economic development by providing direct technical assistance to EECBG Program grantees (e.g., states, local governments, and tribes). These organizations will also forge connections and collaborations between EECBG Program grantees and other regional governments, non-profit organizations, private companies, and trade organizations to advance regional clean energy efforts by hosting in-person and virtual convenings.
- Apply by January 28, 2025, by 3pm ET
- Five Star Wetland and Urban Waters Restoration Grants
- The Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program 2025 Request for Proposals has been released.
- Full proposals are due by January 30, 2025 by 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
- Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program
RESOURCES
- News Stories: Administration Change & Impact on IRA/Climate