Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Readiness Technical Assistance Program (Text Version)

This is the text version of the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Readiness Technical Assistance Program video.

>>Pardeep Toor: All right. I am going to get this started.

Just a few housekeeping elements here before we get going. As I mentioned here about a minute ago, this webinar is being recorded. We will be posting the webinar online on NREL.gov but also sharing the link with all those in attendance here in the next week or so once we get it produced and processed. Once we share that link, we encourage all of you to share it with other folks, as well. We would like to get this information out as far as possible. Then, I also wanted to emphasize the Q&A box or the chat. The Q&A box … We'll be monitoring questions throughout the webinar, and we'll be answering those at the end, so if you have a question for our panelists, please put it in the Q&A box and, time pending, we will get to those at the end of this presentation. Without further ado, I'm going to get started by introducing my colleagues, Jennifer Berrie and Elise DeGeorge, who will be your panelists today. Jennifer?

>>Jennifer Berrie: All right. Thank you, Pardeep. Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining us for this informational webinar about the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Readiness Technical Assistance Program. My name is Jennifer Berrie, and I am a project manager here at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. I'll let my colleague, Elise, introduce herself.

>>Elise De George: Yes. Hello, I am Elise DeGeorge, and I am a senior project leader, also at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. I'm happy to be here.

>>Jennifer Berrie: All right. Thanks, Elise. Let's go ahead and dive right in and take a look at the agenda. Here is just a quick overview of what our webinar is going to cover today. We're going to talk about BIL 40209 and the technical assistance program, just do a general overview. We'll also cover eligibility requirements, along with the technical assistance process and some important dates. We'll cover expectations, the selection criteria, and we'll also cover technical assistance options, and then, as Pardeep mentioned, at the end here we'll go ahead and cover some Q&A. We've already received some questions. We've got an FAQ slide at the end, so we may be answering some of your questions here at the onset, but we'll do those first, and then we'll move to the chat. All right. So, let's dive right into BIL 40209 and the technical assistance program.

Section 40209 of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aka BIL, directs the Department of Energy to establish an advanced energy manufacturing and recycling grant program that provides technical assistance and grants to small- and medium-sized manufacturers in coal communities. The program funding opportunity announcement was released on Feb. 13th of this year. Total awards will be up to $350 million initially, with individual awards somewhere between $5 million and $100 million. This program supports projects that are small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms in these two topic areas that you see here: building new manufacturing or recycling facilities, along with re-equipping or expanding manufacturing facilities. Those are all specific to advanced energy property types.

Let's go ahead and go to the next slide so we can look at what those are.

I'm not going to read this slide to you; you'll be able to read it for yourself. But this is just a summary slide showing the various advanced energy property types that fit within the scope of BIL 40209. With regard to the technical assistance program we have here, DOE is providing this technical assistance on a selective basis to eligible entities that intend to seek grant funding under BIL 40209. This readiness technical assistance program is really designed to help interested manufacturing firms that are eligible but weren't quite ready to apply for the first round of funding. We expect there will be up to 15 awards for the assistance program. And this is a point of emphasis here: Applicants must meet the eligibility requirements for BIL 40209 to apply. All right. So, it's speaking of those eligibility requirements… Let's go ahead and take a look at those.

This is for small- or medium-sized manufacturing firms, and that's defined in BIL 40209 with the following information: The principal business of the applicant needs to fall within the North American Industry Classification Code 31–33; the gross annual sales need to be less than $100 million; fewer than 500 employees at the plant site of the manufacturing firm; along with annual energy bills that total more than $100,000 but less than $2.5 million. Another piece of eligibility that we really want to emphasize here is that the proposed project must be located within a census tract. There are a couple of qualifiers here, as you can see. The coal mine would need to be closed after Dec. 31, 1999, or a coal-fired electricity generating power plant unit closed after Dec. 31, 2009, or immediately adjacent to either of those, so neighboring tracts are also included. Very handily, DOE created a map that you are able to access here. The link is here; I believe Pardeep already put it into the chat. But please go in there. That map is really wonderful because you can be very granular about it. You can type in a very specific address and see where you fall within those census tracts.

All right. And with that, I'm going to kick it off and hand it over to Elise so that she can talk about our remaining agenda items.

>>Elise DeGeorge: Great. Thank you. I'm going to talk about the process and important dates. We'll also be talking about expectations, selection criteria, and also the technical assistance options, and then we'll go back to Jenn to talk about frequently asked questions. Without further ado, let's go to the next slide.

You are all here today to learn more about how to apply for this readiness TA. Once we receive your application, if you're eligible and interested, the first thing that we will be doing on our end is to be conducting a compliance review. If you are eligible for the program based on the BIL 40209 eligibility criteria, and all required information was submitted, and if the proposed project that you submit upon meets the program objectives of BIL 40209, then we will be assessing your application against our standardized selection criteria, which I'll cover here shortly. It will be really important in the first couple days after we receive your application. We'll be checking for compliance and then moving on to our selection activities. Ultimately, the Department of Energy will make all of the final award decisions, and we have room to make up to 15 awards.

Important dates. Today is our informational webinar. Our application deadline is May 26, and then we are going to make notifications as quickly as possible after that May 26 date, and it will be by the end of June 2023. Shortly after making those notifications, we are hoping to get started working with you, so we'll start technical assistance in July. We'll move into our discovery and scoping phase, and then in midstream, when we're working with you as a partner, we will be also assessing for performance. This is an important step because we really want to make sure, one, that we are meeting your needs and, in turn, that we are working well together to help you get ready for future phases of BIL 40209, so we really want it to work in both directions. Next slide, please.

Expectations ... Expectations go both ways. We have our technical assistance team, which will be experts within the NREL staff bench, as well as a broader consultant bench. So, we'll have a wide team of experts in lots of different areas around the categories being offered, the topics being offered to you for technical assistance support. What we are committing to is that you will receive a baseline level of assistance from NREL and the greater NREL team that I just described, we'll work with you directly right out of the gate to scope activities to make sure that we're meeting your needs within our capabilities and within the right timeline. We'll work with you and agree upon a tailored scope of work and a schedule, and then we'll, of course, assess progress after about 3 months of engagement to make sure that it's a good fit. Then, in turn, from you, we have some company expectations. The company expectations are really in line with power assessing performance, so these are really important criteria just to make sure that things are working out and we're using taxpayer dollars as efficiently as possible.

We are expecting our partners to commit to set agreements in place that will be involved in your subsequent design construction, installation, and financing of your proposed project, that you are committing the appropriate staff and resources needed to meaningfully engage in the TA and achieve real results, that you're demonstrating proven engagement with the NREL team through participation and meetings, sharing the needed data, and showing steadfast interest in reaching a common goal. Again, this goes both ways. We are holding ourselves accountable to be participating in meetings and being active and responsive, and then, in turn, we will expect the same. We expect the companies to articulate risk mitigation needed to achieve project goals. It's going to be a really important activity working with you that we keep an active risk and response log, and so that's going to be a very important element of starting this during our discovery phase and keeping that up to date throughout our support of your company's goals. Providing data to support future financial sustainability of your plan, and ensuring your company's future needs are in alignment with the TA program. Ultimately, we want to make sure it's a good fit.

Selection criteria ... To remind you, again, we're going to receive your application, and we are going to assess compliance. Then, if you are eligible, we will be assessing your TA application against five criterion that I'm going to describe here. The weight is shown here on the upper left underneath each criterion.

This is an important criterion, project concept and feasibility, and it's worth 25% of your score. The subcriteria are listed here. We want to make sure that your project idea is clearly articulated and in line with the 40209, that you clearly demonstrated that the project has been thoroughly planned and developed, that the project has undergone enough research and design to demonstrate commercial readiness, that it could eventually be a successful project, that the applicant presents—that you present a clear understanding of potential economic policy, regulatory, or technology risks. Again, the importance of really understanding the risks and where focus needs to be made to mitigate those risks, and that your application addresses market analysis, business planning, and budget analysis that shows that your idea can be financially feasible and sustainable.

The next criterion is demonstration of need, that's 20% of your store. We're looking to see if you have sufficiently identified why you're requesting TA and the potential barriers to implementing your project without assistance—why you need the TA. Secondly, you've demonstrated an ability to develop the project idea on your own, which can be strengthened through support from the TA team.

Criterion 3, demonstration of technological impact, 20% of your score. We'll be looking to see that your project meets the definition of an advanced energy property project, and the two examples are described in the BIL and listed here as sub-bullets. We'll be looking to see if the project or project idea bolsters high-priority supply chain needed to create an emissions-free power sector by 2035 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and that your idea provides a technological approach for which the impact will be beneficial to the clean energy manufacturing industry and of course the coal-impacted communities where you'll be working.

Criterion 4, community engagement and project impact: 15%. We'll be looking to see how you'll describe your project and how it will impact the community in which you'll be residing through direct or indirect job creation, opportunities for disadvantaged populations or displaced workers to participate in the workforce, direct community investment and other similar advantages to those communities. We're looking to see that you identify specific and high-quality community benefits to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, that you are aligning with Justice40 initiatives, that you are aligning also with community and labor initiatives and investing in the American Workforce initiatives within a coal-impacted community. We'll be looking to see that you have identified partners that would enhance the project in the manufacturer's place in the community and that you've provided verification of those commitments and support from relevant decision makers and community leaders.

Finally, Criterion 5, 20% of your score: application, and project readiness. We will be looking to see that you've demonstrated a sufficient level of planning and task readiness to indicate TA would provide gap-closing services, and that your team members demonstrate the necessary knowledge, skills, and experience to ensure project success.

The next section is what we're able to do and what TA we are able to provide support around. You'll see this also in your application, and what we've done here to strengthen the delivery is to move different TA categories under headers that you'll see above. These are support services around helping you determine project viability. These are suggestions of things that you might want to do in order to demonstrate your project's viability and have more of a chance of success. We could conduct supply chain analyses to ensure that the project is sustainable. We can assess O&M needs and support. We can outline processes for identifying cost or savings opportunities. We can help you with feasibility analysis by assessing technical and economic viability of your project. We could conduct market analysis and competitive intelligence, and do SWOT analysis—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats—to help you position yourself in the marketplace. We can perform innovation assessments, which could include (and not limited to) analyzing structures and functions of your advanced energy property project and ensuring proof of commercial viability. There may be other things that we would be able to do under these different categories, so please feel free to suggest other activities that you think fall within project viability or the other categories we'll be sharing with you today.

There is support we could provide around project improvements. We can do innovation assessments, which could include (but not limited to) analyzing the structures and functions of your advanced energy property project and/or enduring proof of commercial viability. We can perform energy efficiency studies, including (but not limited to): facilitating opportunities for evaluating possible energy or water savings or greenhouse gas emission reductions at your facility. There is a lot we can do around project execution support, TA support, around regulatory, procurement, and budgeting and finance. In the regulatory space, we could assist you in navigating permitting and review processes and help you collaborate with regulatory agencies. We could help provide support for utility interconnection or service provision to your new or redeveloped facilities. Some procurement TA support could include designing, issuing, and reviewing requests for proposals as needed for your project elements and/or identifying opportunities for minority-owned, women-owned, and service-disabled veteran-owned contractors and suppliers. We can provide budgeting and financing support, which could include conducting front-end engineering design studies, undertaking financial due diligence reviews, and identifying additional funding opportunities. We could provide support in community integration, which could include developing community benefits plans with you, including identifying and engaging stakeholders, conducting community engagement, developing work and labor agreements.

Identifying your stakeholders is going to be one of our core activities that we'll be performing with you during the discovery phase, as well. We feel this is very critical in really laying out your project needs, a very fundamental need. Another area we could support is modeling community impact, which could include assistance with preparing information on job creation and investment goals, economic development opportunities, and/or reduction of emissions in the community. We can provide labor and workforce development support, including (but not limited to) matching skills with training programs, collaborating on engagement with the workforce, and/or connecting with organized labor organizations.

That's a lot of information right there, in terms of what we would like to offer, a little bit about our team, and what we expect from the applicants and what you should expect from us. We look forward to hearing your questions but, for starters, we're going to move on to some frequently asked questions to hopefully get ahead of some of the questions we might be hearing from you. Jenn?

>>Jennifer Berrie: All right. Thank you. Like I said earlier, we did receive a few questions, and so, we just wanted to address those here.

One of the questions that we've heard: "Does my company have to be eligible for the grant funding to apply for this readiness technical assistance program?" The answer is: Yes. You must currently meet the eligibility requirements of BIL 40209 to qualify for the technical assistance here.

We have also heard from some folks, "I received a discourage decision when I applied for round one. Does that mean I should apply for this technical assistance program?" We just want to emphasize to everybody that the decision to apply is really up to each entity alone. We can't tell anybody what they should or should not do here. Eligible and interested small- and medium-sized manufacturers are encouraged to consider applying, and then hopefully, we can provide the support that will help you achieve real results.

A follow-up question: "Is there any cost-share required for the technical assistance program?" No. But I will remind you that, much like Elise just said, there are some expectations, including active participation in the program and, on the part of the organization, that is required for technical assistance here.

You might be wondering, “That was a lot of options that we could potentially ask for. Is there a limit on what we can ask for from the technical assistance offerings?" The answer is: No. But each organization, you should think through the types of support that will help you best prepare for future BIL funding and note that you also will be required to provide justification for each TA offering that you request in your application. Each application will be evaluated on whether or not the applicant sufficiently identified why they're requesting technical assistance and the potential barriers to implement the project or project idea without that assistance, so that's going to be very important, as well.

Another question that we're getting that we've seen here in the chat and other places: "Your project is across the street from a neighboring census tract but not directly in the census tract. Are you eligible? Does your project have to be in a census tract now?" The answer is: Yes. Your project or project idea must currently be located in a covered census tract, and I'll just remind you that would include in which a coal mine closed after December 31, 1999, a coal-fired electricity generating power plant unit closed after December 31, 2009, or immediately adjacent to either of those two things. If the project or idea is not located in a census tract, it is not eligible. Again, I would really emphasize that you should use that link that we have. We can put it in the chat again so that you can review the census tract maps. Type in your address, county, whatever it is, so that you can really see what you're up against and where you are as far as various census tracts. All right.

>>Elise DeGeorge: We have a question about the census tract. "Do you need to be located there now, or can it be a plan to be there within a year or so?" We wanted to emphasize that it's the same requirement as applicants for BIL 40209 with respect to proving your location is within a census tract.

>>Jennifer Berrie: All right. I'm just going to look at some of the other questions that we've received here. All right. We've answered some of these. OK. I'm just looking through, and we'll give people a minute or two. We've given you a lot of information, so if you're currently typing a question, don't feel rushed. We kind of got through a lot of this information fairly quickly, so we'll give you guys just a few more moments to go ahead and type anything in. Just to note, also, if we don't cover your question today, we are going to review everything that was put into the chat, whether answered or unanswered yet, so that we can follow back up with everybody, so please know that we see you, we hear you, and we will get back to you.

All right, and thank you, Pardeep, for putting the link to the map in there. I appreciate that. Pardeep also very kindly put in the various email addresses. We do want to remind you that if you have questions specifically related to eligibility, we would like you to send those to the [inaudible] email address that is in there.

Keith, excellent question. "Where do we find the application for the program?" We do have that on our NREL.gov website. We can go ahead and pop that link in the chat here. We'll actually send you to the webpage that has the various information about the program itself, which then links out to the application itself. Thank you, Pardeep. Keith, your answer is there.

All right. I see some more questions are being answered live in the chat, which is awesome. Thank you to everybody who is helping out with those. OK. We'll give it just another couple of minutes. We really appreciate everybody's participation here. We hope you've gotten some useful information. We hope that you go to the websites, look at the information.

OK. It looks like all of our questions have been asked and answered, so if there is nothing else, I think we're going to give everybody 30 minutes back. It certainly can't hurt. As was mentioned previously, this was being—this is still currently being recorded, and we will post this recording to our website. We'll reach out to everybody after the fact to let you know that it's there so that you don't miss it, and we're looking forward to working with you.

>>Elise DeGeorge: Thank you very much.

>>Jennifer Berrie: Thank you, everybody.

[End of audio]