Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices (BEETIT) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices (BEETIT) is an ARPA-E funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Energy focused on next-generation building cooling technologies that can sharply cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The amendment described here requests full applications under an earlier related FOA (DE-FOA-0000288) and sets a final submission deadline of Monday, May 24, 2010 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time, with the note that earlier submissions are encouraged. The program sits within ARPA-E's broader mission, established by the America COMPETES Act and initially funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to back high-risk, high-reward applied R&D that could be genuinely disruptive in the U.S. energy landscape, reducing reliance on foreign energy imports, lowering energy-related emissions (including greenhouse gases), and improving efficiency across the economy.

The motivation for BEETIT is the outsized role buildings play in U.S. energy consumption. The opportunity highlights that buildings account for about 40 percent of U.S. primary energy use, around 72 percent of electricity use, and roughly 55 percent of natural gas use. Within that footprint, air conditioning and space cooling are major drivers, especially in hot, humid, or rapidly growing metropolitan regions. BEETIT targets cooling not only because it draws large amounts of electricity, but also because conventional vapor-compression systems rely on refrigerants that can have significant climate impact if leaked. In short, the FOA frames building cooling as a two-part emissions problem: emissions from the energy required to cool buildings and emissions associated with the refrigerants used in common AC equipment.

Technically, ARPA-E is seeking research and development that can make air conditioning dramatically more efficient and less climate-damaging. The solicitation emphasizes three main pathways. First, it calls for cooling systems that use refrigerants with extremely low global warming potential (GWP) of less than or equal to 1, aiming to eliminate the high climate penalty of many legacy refrigerants. Second, it seeks energy-efficient AC approaches tailored to warm and humid climates, specifically targeting ventilation-load cooling performance and asking for at least a 50 percent improvement in coefficient of performance (COP) for handling ventilation air. This is important because in humid regions, a large share of cooling energy goes into removing moisture and conditioning fresh outside air, not just lowering temperature. Third, it targets hot-climate vapor-compression systems used for recirculating air loads, again aiming for at least a 50 percent COP improvement. Taken together, these targets signal that ARPA-E is looking beyond incremental component upgrades and instead wants system-level breakthroughs that can outperform conventional designs by a wide margin.

The FOA also recognizes that cooling needs vary substantially by building type and climate, and it encourages approaches that reflect those real-world differences. For example, hospitals and similar facilities can have extremely high ventilation requirements, in some cases approaching 100 percent fresh air, which makes ventilation-load conditioning a dominant energy cost. Offices, retail, and residential buildings may have different balances between recirculated air cooling and outside-air ventilation. Climate matters just as much: warm-humid regions demand strong dehumidification and latent load management, while hot-dry regions emphasize sensible cooling and can enable different thermodynamic strategies. BEETIT leaves room for applicants to propose one technology pathway or combinations of approaches, as long as the proposed work clearly advances the goals of higher efficiency and lower emissions in building cooling.

From an administrative standpoint, the grant is listed as Funding Opportunity Number DE-FOA-0000289, offered as a discretionary cooperative agreement, in the broad category of science, technology, and other research and development. The opportunity anticipated about 15 awards, with an estimated total funding level of $30,000,000. Individual awards were expected to range from a floor of $500,000 to a ceiling of $10,000,000, and the listing specifies that cost sharing or matching is required. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full text of the announcement. The posted date is March 2, 2010, with an original closing date of April 2, 2010 that was extended to the current closing date of May 24, 2010, and an archive date of October 5, 2010.

For logistics, the announcement directs applicants to the ARPA-E Exchange site (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/) for attachments, forms, instructions, and electronic submission of full applications. Questions about the FOA were required to be submitted by email to ARPA-E-CO@hq.doe.gov. For technical trouble accessing the announcement, the contact listed is John T. Harris, Contracting Officer, at 202-287-1055 and john.harris@hq.doe.gov. Overall, BEETIT is positioned as a competitive ARPA-E program aiming to accelerate transformational cooling technologies that can materially cut building energy demand while also eliminating or minimizing refrigerant-driven climate impacts.

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