WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) today announced $20 million in funding for projects that will improve stakeholder access to region-specific information and technical assistance regarding the commercial deployment of carbon capture, transport, conversion, and storage technologies across the United States.

These technologies work together to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from power and industrial facilities, then transport the CO₂ for permanent geologic storage or conversion to valuable long-lived products like concrete to reduce negative climate impacts. Large-scale deployment of carbon management technologies is crucial to meeting President Biden’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“As we continue to ramp up our investments to decarbonize the nation’s most energy and emissions intensive sectors like power generation and heavy industry, we are also conducting meaningful engagement with local communities and stakeholders that may be impacted by these investments,” said Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. “The funding announced today will support that engagement by establishing an effective mechanism for developing and providing technical assistance specific to regions where large-scale carbon management hubs are expected to emerge.”

FECM currently supports four regional projects that have already provided technical assistance on secure geologic carbon storage throughout the United States. Today’s funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will augment these existing efforts by developing new technical assistance and public engagement projects with a more local geographic focus. The projects will provide stakeholders with crucial resources and information necessary to facilitate the regional deployment of large-scale geologic storage facilities or carbon management hubs that could store up to hundreds of millions of metric tons of CO₂ at an injection rate of more than 5 million metric tons per year. The FOA also provides the opportunity for DOE to work with State Geologic Surveys and related organizations with unique technical capabilities to identify the potential for these large-scale projects within promising geologic basins in their respective states.

Read more details of this FOA here, and visit our website to find resources and recommendations for project teams, project evaluators, and communities on how to include equity and justice and conduct engagement in project plans. All questions about this FOA must be submitted through FedConnect; register here for an account.

FECM funds research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects to decarbonize power generation and industrial sources, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and mitigate the environmental impacts of fossil fuel production and use. Priority areas of technology work include carbon capture, carbon conversion, carbon dioxide removal, carbon dioxide transport and storage, hydrogen production with carbon management, methane emissions reduction, and critical minerals production. To learn more, visit the FECM website, sign up for FECM news announcements, and visit the NETL website.