Grants from the California Energy Commission
Delivered April 10, 2020. Contributor: Mik W.
Goals
- To create a list of all grant awards from the last 10 years from the California Energy Commission.
Early Findings
Grant Programs from the California Energy Commission
1. Geothermal Resources
Development Account
(GRDA)
- Program Summary: "The funds from this account come from revenues paid by
geothermal developers for leases on federal land in
California."
- "Solicitations are
generally offered every
2 to 3 years."
- "The most recent
solicitation was offered
in October 2016, with a
Notice of Proposed
Awards issued in March
2017."
- Roughly $2.28 million is left to award in total as of January 2019.
2. Electric Program Investment
Charge (EPIC)
- Program Summary: "The Electric Program
Investment Charge was created to fund public interest
investments in clean energy technologies and approaches
for the benefit of electricity ratepayers of California’s three
largest electric investor-owned utilities."
- Solicitations are continuously released
throughout the year.
- Max/ Min Award
Amounts: "Funding will vary, but
project funding levels
are expected to
range between
$250,000 and $5
million."
- Funding Source: "The California
Public Utilities
Commission
established the
purposes and
governance for the
Electric Program
Investment Charge
in Decision on May
24, 2012."
- Approximately $133.2
million per year is awarded in total.
3. Low Carbon Fuel Research
and Development Program
- Program Summary: "Budget Act of 2016, authorized the Energy Commission to
implement a Low Carbon Fuel Research and Development
Program to support the advancement of low-carbon drop-in
fuels production derived from California’s biomass feedstock
that can be produced to be fully compatible with existing
infrastructure and vehicle technologies."
- "Applications for the
traditional grant funding
opportunity were
accepted in early 2017.
The application cycle started
in August 2016 and ended
in October 2017.
This was a one-time
funding authority, and
future opportunities are
TBD."
- Max/ Min Award
Amounts: Project funding levels
range from $600,000
to $5,700,000.
- Funding Source: General Fund from the
Budget Act of 2016
- All funding was
awarded by February
2018.
4. Greenhouse Gas Reduction
Fund (GGRF) Food
Production Investment
Program (FPIP)
- Program Summary: "The program focuses on accelerating the adoption of
advanced energy efficiency and renewable energy
technologies at California food processing plants,
demonstrate their reliability and effectiveness and help
California food processors achieve a low-carbon future."
- A grant solicitation was
released in June 2018
and closed on August 31, 2018.
- "Additional periodic
solicitations could be
released in the future
pending funds available."
- Max/ Min Award
Amounts: Project funding levels
range from $100,000
to $8,000,000,
depending on the
tier.
- Funding Source: GGRF (CA Climate
Investments)
- $57 million
was available for funding in FY 17-18, while $60 million was available for FY 18-19.
5. Public Interest Energy
Research (PIER) — Natural
Gas Funding
- Program Summary: "The funds are collected from natural gas ratepayers of
California Investor Owned Utilities. These funds are
administered by the California Energy Commission to
provide public interest natural gas research programs.
- "Solicitations are continuously released throughout the year.
"
- Max/ Min Award
Amounts: Varies depending on
solicitation. Recent
solicitations have
accepted awards up
to $2 million.
- Funding Source: "Annual funding
approved by
CPUC, and funds
are transferred
from CPUC Gas
Consumption
Surcharge Fund
"
- Approximately $21 million
per year is
left to award in total.
6. Alternative and Renewable
Fuel and Vehicle Technology
Program (ARFVTP)
- Program Summary: The ARFVT Program
provides "approximately $100 million annually to promote
innovative transportation technologies that increase the use
of alternative and renewable fuels, advancing California's
efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, reduce petroleum
use, improve air quality, and stimulate sustainable production and use of biofuels in California."
- Max/ Min Award
Amounts: Varies by each
solicitation
- Funding Source: Alternative and
Renewable Fuel
and Vehicle
Technology Fund
- As of December 2018,
approximately $200
million was left to award in total.
7. Low Carbon Fuel Production
and Supply (Greenhouse
Gas Reduction Funds)
- Program Summary: "California's 2018-19 State Budget Act appropriated $12.5 million in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds to the
California Energy Commission to fund Low-Carbon Fuel
Production and Supply Projects within California.
"
- Funding Source: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund
- $12.5 million was left to reward in total as of January 2019.
8. School Bus Replacement
Program and Supporting
Fueling Infrastructure
- Program Summary: "Senate Bill 110 (SB 110), Chapter 55, Statutes of 2017
allocates up to $75 million to public school districts and county offices of education (COE) for grants to replace the
oldest school buses. The program is emphasizing new electric school buses as the preferred replacement type and
compressed natural gas (CNG) school buses if justified.
"
- The application period
closed on September
20, 2018."
Summary
- For the initial hour, we tried identifying as much of the requested information as possible. To inform the research better, we mainly focused on identifying the different types of grants available from the California Energy Commission and tried identifying a list of grant awardees or recipients.
- For this hour, we were able to identify insights on the eight types of grants available from the California Energy Commission, which we described above, along with more general insights on how much they have awarded.
- Research suggests that additional information and insights on grant awardees for some of these different programs are available, particularly for the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) grant and the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) grants. We can start by focusing on these two programs. Please let us know in a comment below if this is a direction we should pursue for the other programs or let us know if there any of the aforementioned programs are of specific interest.
- We also tried reviewing any insights from the Auditor of the State of California's website, but nothing relevant came up.
- Currently, we cannot do a public records request from the CEC.
- Feel free to add or select an option below.
Proposed next steps:
You need to be the project owner to select a next step.