The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), authorizes DOE to invest $1 billion in energy improvements in rural or remote areas. DOE’s Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program will provide financial investment, technical assistance, and other resources to advance clean energy demonstrations and energy solutions that are replicable and scalable. ERA aims to fund clean energy projects with three specific goals:

Deliver measurable benefits to energy customers in rural or remote areas by funding replicable energy projects that lower energy costs, improve energy access and resilience, and/or reduce environmental harm;

Demonstrate new rural or remote energy system models using climate-resilient technologies, business structures that promote economic resilience, new financing mechanisms, and/or new community engagement best practices; and

Build clean energy knowledge, capacity, and self-reliance in rural America.

The ERA Program is managed by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), whose mission is to deliver clean energy technology demonstration projects at scale to accelerate deployment, market adoption, and the equitable transition to a decarbonized energy system.

OCED seeks to provide equal opportunity to qualified applicants from rural and remote areas of the United States, which for the purposes of this statutory section means areas of less than 10,000 people. OCED recognizes that potential applicants will come to this program with widely varying energy and resilience needs. To address this reality that one size does not fit all, OCED has organized this $300 million Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) into nine geographic regions, each with its own set of broad energy challenges that provide applicants the opportunity to propose creative solutions at a variety of sizes and scales to address those challenges. Depending on response, OCED may open up additional Funding Opportunity Announcements in the future.

The ERA Program intends to improve the cost, reliability, environmental impact, and climate and economic resilience of energy systems in rural or remote communities by funding clean energy projects with commercially viable or near-commercially viable technologies. Projects funded through this FOA will de-risk investment in the energy infrastructure of rural or remote communities. Funded projects will provide insights for future investments, such as deployment of similar technologies, use of similar business models, or adoption of similar community engagement best practices and clarify pathways to future good paying union jobs.