Water Power Technologies Office 2019 Research Funding Opportunity | DE FOA 0002080

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002080

The Water Power Technologies Office 2019 Research Funding Opportunity (DE-FOA-0002080) is a U.S. Department of Energy competitive funding announcement issued by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) on behalf of DOE's Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO). It supports research, development, and targeted infrastructure work intended to improve the performance, value, and deployability of U.S. water power resources, including conventional hydropower and marine and hydrokinetic technologies. The opportunity is administered by the Department of Energy, Golden Field Office, and full application requirements and the complete Funding Opportunity Announcement are provided through the EERE Exchange portal (https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/).

This FOA uses cooperative agreements as the funding instrument, which typically means DOE expects substantial involvement during the project period, such as active technical collaboration, progress reviews, and coordinated decision-making at key milestones. The total program focus is organized into four main Areas of Interest (AOIs), each aimed at addressing practical barriers to modernization, cost reduction, and performance improvements across hydropower and marine energy. The announcement was created on April 1, 2019, with an original application deadline of July 9, 2019, and it anticipated making about 19 awards with an award ceiling of $1,800,000 per project.

Area of Interest 1 targets hydropower operational flexibility, reflecting the increasing need for hydropower plants to support a changing electric grid with higher levels of variable renewable generation. Under Area 1a, projects are intended to quantify hydropower capabilities for operational flexibility, which generally involves measuring, modeling, and validating how hydropower units and facilities can provide grid services such as ramping, load following, frequency response, spinning reserve, and other flexibility attributes. Under Area 1b, the emphasis shifts from characterization to action, supporting the development and demonstration of operational strategies that can increase hydropower flexibility. This can include improved controls, dispatch strategies, forecasting integration, plant-level optimization, and approaches that expand flexible operations while maintaining reliability and managing impacts to equipment life, safety, environmental compliance, and water management objectives.

Area of Interest 2 focuses on low-head hydropower and in-stream hydrokinetic technologies, with an emphasis on modularity as a pathway to reduce costs and simplify deployment. Area 2a addresses modular technologies for low-head hydropower applications, which are typically relevant at sites with limited elevation drop where conventional designs may be too costly or complex. The modular concept generally points toward standardized, scalable, easier-to-install components that could shorten permitting and construction timelines and make smaller projects more economically viable. Area 2b addresses modular technologies for river current energy converter applications, supporting designs that generate power directly from moving water in rivers without requiring large civil structures. This area aims to advance device concepts and systems that can be deployed in river environments in a repeatable way, with improved survivability, maintainability, performance, and reduced installation and operational costs.

Area of Interest 3 is dedicated to advancing wave energy device design. This area supports efforts to improve the technical readiness and performance of wave energy converters through better engineering, controls, materials, power take-off systems, reliability, and overall system optimization. While the brief summary in the listing does not specify subtopics, the intent is clear: accelerate progress toward wave energy technologies that can operate efficiently in real ocean conditions, withstand harsh marine environments, and move closer to commercially relevant cost and performance levels through improved device design and validation.

Area of Interest 4 supports marine energy centers research infrastructure upgrades. This portion of the FOA is aimed at improving the facilities and capabilities of research centers that test, validate, and de-risk marine energy technologies. Infrastructure upgrades can include improvements to test berths, instrumentation, data acquisition systems, electrical interconnection, moorings, handling equipment, or other enabling assets that increase the quality, throughput, and relevance of marine energy testing and research. The basic goal is to strengthen the national testing and research ecosystem so that innovators have better pathways for evaluation, iteration, and performance verification.

Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning the opportunity is generally open to a wide range of applicant types, subject to any additional conditions or clarifications contained in the FOA itself under the eligibility section. The program is categorized under the Energy funding activity category and is associated with CFDA number 81.087. Applicants are directed to EERE Exchange for the authoritative version of requirements, evaluation criteria, submission steps, and any topic-specific guidance, since those details are typically spelled out in the full FOA rather than in the brief synopsis.

• The Department of Energy, Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Water Power Technologies Office 2019 Research Funding Opportunity" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 01, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 09, 2019. (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 $1,800,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 19 candidate(s).
• 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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