The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is soliciting applications for the formation of a Consortium to pursue five identified R&D topics at the nexus of energy and water (see Funding Opportunity Announcement PDF at the bottom of the page). These topics are:

  1. Water use reduction at thermoelectric plants;
  2. Treatment and management of non-traditional waters;
  3. Improving sustainable hydropower design and operation;
  4. Climate impact modeling, methods, and scenarios to support improved energy and water systems understanding; and
  5. Data and analysis to inform planning, policy, and other decisions. 

Each responsive application will address all five topics; DOE is offering a mechanism to facilitate partnering during the Application process.  The Consortium that is funded through this solicitation will form a new technical track under the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, which is a bilateral initiative to encourage R&D collaboration and accelerate technology development and deployment in both countries (see: http://www.us-china-cerc.org). The U.S. consortium selected under this announcement will be funded by the DOE Office of Fossil Energy, DOE Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis (EPSA), DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and DOE Office of Science. The principal DOE coordinator of CERC activities is the Office of International Affairs.  The topics solicited in the FOA build on the contents of The Water-Energy Nexus: Challenge and Opportunities, which DOE issued in June 2014.

  • The DOE press release can be found here. The CERC website can be found here.
  • Q&A and other amendments will be updated on the official FedConnect portal and can be accessed here