Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project
NREL manages the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP) to help coastal, remote, and island communities transform their energy systems and increase resilience through technical assistance and cash awards.
Learn how to apply for ETIPP technical assistance. The next round of applications will open in the spring of 2025.
Get access to community resources to help you with your energy transition project.
What Is the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project?
ETIPP provides energy planning and technical assistance to bolster energy resilience in coastal, remote, and island communities across the United States and U.S. territories. The program employs a community-driven approach to identify and plan resilient clean energy solutions that address a community's specific challenges and draw on appropriate energy resources. This approach combines the expertise of local community leaders, residents, and groups with regional organizations and energy experts at DOE national laboratories.
Cohort 4 Communities Announced
Check out which communities are involved.Communities selected for ETIPP receive up to 24 months of in-kind technical assistance and up to $50,000 in direct funding to support their energy transitions. After selection, communities engage in project scoping for approximately 2–6 months to discuss community priorities and finalize project details with technical assistance providers and regional partners. Communities and technical assistance providers then execute the project over a period of 12–18 months.
Technical Assistance in Action: Energy Resilience Success Stories
Sitka, Alaska, and Molokai, Hawaii
Although they are geographically different, Sitka, Alaska, and Molokai, Hawaii—two communities in ETIPP’s third cohort—both aimed to engage local residents in their energy planning processes. Read about how these communities collaborated to learn from each other about engagement strategies for their ETIPP projects.
Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association is working to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel and hybridize boats in its fleet using battery-diesel systems. Read how the group’s ETIPP project helped the Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association take steps toward lowering emissions from its fishing vessels.
Island Institute
The Island Institute is an ETIPP regional partner that works with communities in the Northeast to find economically viable clean energy options. The organization collaborated with two Maine communities in ETIPP's first cohort—Eastport and Islesboro—to address local energy goals. To learn more, watch an Island Institute YouTube video.
Dillingham, Alaska
The local utility in Dillingham, Alaska, worked with ETIPP to understand how a potential run-of-river hydroelectric project could support its goals of providing clean, affordable, and reliable energy to residents, and reducing dependency on diesel fuel. Visit DOE’s website to learn more about Dillingham’s ETIPP project.
Eastport, Maine
Eastport, Maine, worked with ETIPP to explore microgrid options and improve the energy efficiency of homes in the easternmost point in the continental United States. Learn about Eastport's ETIPP project.
Oahu, Hawaii
An ETIPP project in Oahu, Hawaii, helped the local utility better understand residents' priorities and perspectives on microgrid siting, which changed the course of energy planning on the island. Read about the ETIPP project in Oahu.
Project Partner Network
ETIPP combines funding and support from DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, technical expertise from national laboratories, and local knowledge from place-based organizations to support communities in building energy resilience.
ETIPP communities receive substantial support from national laboratory researchers, who work with community stakeholders to offer strategic energy analysis and planning. Program administration and technical assistance come from:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provide ETIPP communities with insights on building technologies, distributed energy resources, electricity policy, geothermal technologies, microgrids, transportation electrification, strategic energy planning, utility ratemaking and programs, and utility regulation.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
NREL researchers focus on community and energy resilience, energy efficiency, energy storage, geothermal, hydropower, maritime electrification, microgrids analysis, port electrification, power system modeling, solar, sustainable mobility, strategic energy planning, techno-economic modeling, transportation electrification, and wave and tidal energy through ETIPP.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s ETIPP technical assistance centers on building efficiency, energy storage, geothermal, marine, microgrid analysis, port electrification, resilience, solar, techno-economic modeling, vessel electrification, waste to energy, and wind technology.
Sandia National Laboratories
Through ETIPP, Sandia National Laboratories’ researchers help communities better understand technologies and strategies for building efficiency, community and energy resilience, disaster preparedness, distributed energy resources, microgrids, resilience hubs, and transportation electrification.
ETIPP’s regional partners support communities in their areas before, during, and beyond the scope of their ETIPP projects. These organizations assist with engaging stakeholders, identifying communities’ energy needs, developing their goals, building capacity, and other activities to engage, educate, and prepare communities for their energy transitions. ETIPP’s competitively selected regional partner organizations include:
Alaska Region: Renewable Energy Alaska Project
Caribbean Territories Region: partner to be announced
Great Lakes Region: partner to be announced
Gulf Coast Region: Southeast Sustainability Directors Network
Hawaii/Pacific Territories: partner to be announced
Northeastern Seaboard: Island Institute
Pacific Northwest: Spark Northwest
Southeastern Seaboard: Groundswell
Contact Us
If you have questions about ETIPP, please email ETIPP@nrel.gov.
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