The purpose of this solicitation is to fund applied research and development projects that inform California’s transition to an equitable, zero-carbon energy system that is climate resilient and meets environmental goals. Funded projects must generate best-available science in one of the following areas of environment and energy interactions:
- state-of-the-art monitoring of solar energy deployment and mapping agrivoltaic land suitability to inform Senate Bill (SB) 100 planning and related efforts;
- innovative science on the environmental and biological resource impacts of clean energy technologies and potential mitigation options;
- co-benefits of bird-friendly window innovations with building decarbonization; or
- identification of biologically appropriate exterior lighting.
As with all infrastructure development, clean energy technologies have impacts on species, habitats, ecosystems, and ecosystem services. As the technologies evolve, this creates new knowledge gaps about these impacts and how they can be mitigated efficiently and effectively. In addition to the unintended consequences of energy technologies on the environment, these knowledge gaps can also add to the soft costs of clean energy development by causing delays in permitting or the additional costs of biological surveys and mitigation based on insufficient scientific evidence. While the most obvious source of potential environmental impacts stems from utility-scale energy generation, emerging sources of environmental concern also include interactions with energy efficient and energy generating windows and responses to offshore wind structures and exterior energy efficient artificial lighting in the built environment.
Projects must fall within the following groups:
Group 1: Automated mapping of solar energy footprints and modeling land suitability for agrivoltaics;
Group 2: Assessing and minimizing environmental and biological resource impacts of clean energy deployments;
Group 3: Testing bird-friendly windows for decarbonized buildings; and
Group 4: Identifying biologically appropriate exterior lighting.
There is up to $3,000,000 available for grants awarded under this solicitation. The total, minimum, and maximum funding amounts for each project group are listed below.
Project Group | Available CEC funding | Minimum CEC award | Maximum CEC award | Minimum match funding (% of CEC funds requested) |
Group 1: Automated mapping of solar energy footprints and modeling land suitability for agrivoltaics (1 project) | $700,000 | $600,000 | $700,000 | 0% |
Group 2: Assessing and minimizing environmental and biological resource impacts of clean energy deployments (up to 2 projects) | $1,200,000 | $500,000 | $600,000 | 0% |
Group 3: Testing bird-friendly windows for decarbonized buildings (1 project) | $600,000 | $500,000 | $600,000 | 0% |
Group 4: Identifying biologically appropriate exterior lighting (1 project) | $500,000 | $400,000 | $500,000 | 0% |
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