Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement DE FOA 0001168 Deploying Solutions to Improve the Energy Efficiency of U.S. Commercial Buildings | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

This notice is a heads-up from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), specifically the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and its Buildings Technology Office, that DOE planned to release a future Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) called DE-FOA-0001168, "Deploying Solutions to Improve the Energy Efficiency of U.S. Commercial Buildings." The core purpose of the forthcoming FOA was to put federal dollars behind the real-world deployment and scaling of energy-efficiency solutions in the commercial building sector, with an emphasis on overcoming practical market barriers that slow adoption. Rather than funding early-stage research, the intent was to move market-ready or near-market solutions into broader use across the country so that energy savings show up at scale in actual commercial buildings.

The problem DOE was targeting is that commercial building energy efficiency is often limited less by technology availability and more by market frictions, such as split incentives between owners and tenants, lack of trusted performance data, limited access to financing, high transaction costs for building upgrades, operational constraints, and gaps in workforce capacity or decision-maker awareness. Through the Buildings Technology Office Commercial Building Integration Program, DOE had already invested in creating tools, resources, and solutions designed to address these kinds of barriers. This upcoming FOA was positioned as a way to take those existing DOE-supported resources and deploy them through programs that already work well or through new, innovative program models, with the goal of improving program effectiveness and producing measurable energy savings in commercial buildings.

DOE tied the motivation for this funding to national energy-efficiency goals for commercial buildings: a 20 percent improvement by 2020 and a 50 percent improvement by 2030. The notice indicates that the Commercial Building Integration Program viewed wide deployment as essential to meeting those targets, which is why the FOA was expected to focus on replication, scaling strategies, and broader adoption pathways. In practical terms, applicants would be expected to show how their approach creates a "path to scale" for solutions that are ready for market, meaning the proposal would likely need to demonstrate credible mechanisms for broad uptake, strong partner networks, and plans for collecting data that prove effectiveness across building types, climates, and market segments.

This document is explicitly not an application solicitation. It is only a Notice of Intent, and DOE stated that no applications would be accepted under the notice itself and that applicants should not submit questions or otherwise respond to the notice. Instead, DOE advised prospective applicants to use the lead time to prepare by building partnerships, refining deployment concepts, and gathering supporting data so they could respond quickly once the FOA was formally issued. DOE also indicated the FOA was planned for release around the last quarter of calendar year 2014, and that all submissions would go through EERE eXCHANGE, DOE's online portal for EERE funding opportunities.

From an administrative standpoint, the source record lists the opportunity as discretionary funding and anticipates using cooperative agreements, grants, or other instruments. It also indicates there would be a cost-sharing or matching requirement, meaning awardees would be expected to contribute non-federal funds or in-kind support as part of the project cost share. Eligibility is described as "unrestricted," which typically means a wide range of organizations could apply (for example, companies, universities, nonprofits, state and local governments, and other entities), although any final eligibility limitations would be defined in the full FOA text. The CFDA number provided is 81.086, Conservation Research and Development, and the issuing office is listed as the Golden Field Office.

Several basic details that are often important to applicants were not provided in this notice record, including total funding available, award size range, and the exact application due date. In the listing, the estimated total funding and award floor/ceiling are shown as zero, which generally reflects that the notice was informational and not the final FOA with budget specifics. The closing date is also shown as "TBD" because the FOA had not yet been released at the time of posting.

For access and submission logistics, the notice directs prospective applicants to register and create an account on the EERE eXCHANGE site and references a user guide available through the same system. For technical difficulty accessing the announcement materials electronically, a point of contact is provided: Ryan N. McCleary (ryan.mccleary@ee.doe.gov).

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