Funding Wizard

ARPA-E supports high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector research investment. For its part, ESTCP demonstrates and validates promising technologies that target DoD’s urgent environmental and installation energy needs and are projected to pay back the capital investment through cost savings, improved efficiencies, or other improved outcomes. The complementary nature of these missions has led to this partnership to demonstrate ARPA-E supported technologies at DoD installations, with ARPA-E providing technologies and funding and ESTCP providing access to DoD’s installations and expertise in conducting demonstration projects. The projects funded by this FOA will respond to high priority DoD installation energy technology requirements and the need to improve Defense readiness by reducing facilities’ operation and maintenance costs and improving energy security. The goal is to conduct demonstrations to validate the performance and operational costs of promising energy efficiency and security technologies; to provide any data needed for end-user acceptance; and, to accelerate the commercialization of the technology. These demonstrations will be conducted under operational conditions at DoD facilities or locations for which DoD holds responsibility. Candidate technologies are expected to have successfully completed laboratory testing and, when applicable, initial small-scale field testing. The demonstrations are intended to generate supporting cost and performance data for acceptance or validation of the technology. As appropriate, these projects should also support the future implementation of the tested technology through the development of appropriate guidance, design, and/or protocol documents. This program will not support full-scale demonstrations that are primarily intended to solve an individual installation’s problem; priority will be given to those projects that address multi-Service or DoD-wide requirements. These projects must: 1. Execute the technology demonstration to validate the technology’s performance and expected operational costs: • Each project must develop Pre-Demonstration and Demonstration Plan, to govern the technical execution and management of the demonstration. Guidance describing the requirements of the Demonstration Plans can be found on the ESTCP website (https://www.serdp-estcp.org/Investigator-Resources/ESTCP-Resources/Demo…). The Demonstration Plans must be reviewed and approved by ARPA-E prior to beginning any work at the installation. • Each project is expected to generate sufficient pertinent and high quality data to scientifically validate all claims made for that technology.• Cost and performance data will be collected and shared with ARPA-E and DoD during and after the demonstration(s) to allow realistic estimates to be derived for full-scale implementation of the technology at the demonstration site and other DoD sites.2. Transition the technology:• Develop a Technology Transition Plan and submit it to ARPA-E for approval. Guidance on the Technology Transition plan can be found on the ESTCP website. (https://www.serdp-estcp.org/Investigator-Resources/ESTCP-Resources/Demo…)• Identify and work with the intended DoD user community to achieve their acceptance and feedback on the usefulness of the technology.• Publish appropriate user guidance, design, and/or protocol documents to assist the future implementation of the technology.• Publish a Final Report that will be publicly available and contain the demonstration test data. • Publish the results of the demonstration in the scientific peer reviewed literature and present results at technical conferences, as appropriate.• Identify pathways to implementation of the technology. 3. Provide data and support to achieve regulatory and end-user acceptance:• Technologies needing regulatory approval for use will be required to engage the regulatory community at the outset of project execution. Feedback from regulators must be solicited and incorporated into the project’s Demonstration Plans. • No single approach for working with the regulatory community is prescribed by the program. Interaction with individual state regulatory organizations, interstate groups, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as needed, is encouraged. The approach taken should be appropriate for the technology being demonstrated and the regulatory issues associated with implementing the technology. Applicants selected for demonstration will be teamed with a DoD liaison who will be responsible for assisting in selecting the demonstration site, validating the technology’s cost and performance, interfacing with the regulatory and user community, and supporting the transfer of the technology across DoD.