The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is issuing, on behalf of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) through its Hydropower Program Environmental R&D and Hydrologic Systems Science Activity Area, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) titled “Advancing Fish Passage and Protection Technologies.” This funding opportunity seeks to advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL)1 of innovative fish passage and protection technologies by providing data through testing to verify technologies’ biological effects and performance. Technology innovations include novel solutions that have already established proof-of-concept but require testing as a next step toward market adoption, as well as advancements to existing technologies that show potential to reduce negative impacts to fish, increase technology performance, dramatically reduce costs and/or present novel applications (such as use for different fish species, environmental conditions, or types of infrastructure) but require testing to quantify those improvements. The development of technical solutions to enable and improve safe, timely, and effective fish passage and protection at hydropower dams can improve hydropower’s environmental performance, supports infrastructure sustainability, and contributes to fish restoration goals.
Technology innovations of interest in this FOA include: 1) novel solutions that have already established proof-of-concept but require testing as a next step towards market adoption, and 2) innovations to existing technologies that show potential to reduce negative impacts to fish, increase performance, dramatically reduce costs and/or present applications to novel use cases (e.g., different fish species evaluations, environmental conditions, or types of infrastructure) but require testing to quantify the improvement(s) or application(s). The FOA emphasizes technology innovations that can advance to the prototype testing or demonstration stages and that have a partnership with an appropriate testing facility and/or a hydropower owner/ operator with relevant permits and/or permissions for site access and testing.
There is only one Topic Area in this FOA. This FOA seeks to advance the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of innovative fish passage and protection technologies by providing data through testing to verify biological effects and performance. Technology innovations include: 1) novel solutions that have already established proof-of-concept but require testing as a next step towards market adoption, and 2) innovations to existing technologies that show potential to reduce negative impacts to fish, increase technology performance, dramatically reduce costs and/or present applications to novel use cases (e.g., different fish species evaluations, environmental conditions, or types of infrastructure) but require testing to quantify the improvement(s). The FOA emphasizes technology innovations that can advance to the prototype testing or demonstration stages. FOA applicants must have a partnership with an appropriate testing facility and/or a hydropower owner/ operator with permissions for site access and testing and relevant permits or a plan to obtain permits.
More information about the Topic Area can be found on page 13 of the FOA. See Supporting documents, below.
Information about Technology Space and Strategic Goals can be found on page 9 of the FOA.
Estimated Total Program Funding:
