DOE launches $2.5B funding opportunity for carbon capture systems

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will award $2.52 billion for two carbon management programs to catalyze investments in carbon capture systems and carbon transport and storage technologies.

The two programs — Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilots and Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program — will help accelerate the deployment of carbon management technologies to significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from electricity generation and industrial operations. The funding will come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,

“Drastically cutting emissions across our economy through next-generation carbon management technologies is a critical component of President Biden’s strategy to combat the climate crisis and achieve our ambitious clean energy goals,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “By focusing on some of the most challenging, carbon intensive sectors and heavy industrial processes, today’s investment will ensure America is on a path to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and at the forefront of the global clean energy revolution.”

The Carbon Capture Large-Scale Pilots funding opportunity includes up to $820 million for up to 10 projects focused on de-risking transformational carbon capture technologies and catalyzing follow-on investments for commercial-scale demonstrations on carbon emission sources across the power and industrial sectors.

The Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program funding opportunity includes up to $1.7 billion for approximately six projects to demonstrate commercial-scale carbon capture technologies integrated with CO2 transportation and geologic storage infrastructure. This program focuses on funding demonstration projects that can be readily replicated and deployed at power plants and major industrial sources of carbon emissions, such as cement, pulp and paper, iron, and steel.

The programs are managed by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, along with the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management and the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Successful applicants for these pilots and demonstrations must illustrate meaningful engagement with and tangible benefits to the communities in which these projects will be located. This, applicants will be required to submit Community Benefits Plans as a scored part of their applications to the program. They also require applicants to detail their commitments to community and labor engagement, quality job creation, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and benefits to disadvantaged communities as part of the Justice40 Initiative.