Deadline: January 31, 2025
Award Amount: $50,000 prize for Phase 1; $100,000 for phase 2; Up to $300,000 for Phase 3
Match: None
Eligible Entities: Coalitions
Description: DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is launching the Good Jobs in Clean Energy Prize under the umbrella of the American-Made Challenges Program.6 To inform the scope of the Prize, EERE hosted four workshops focusing on how DOE could help ensure that the momentous investments in clean energy result in high-quality, accessible careers for all populations. The workshops engaged 281 stakeholders from across 31 states, spanning organized labor, community-based organizations, clean energy businesses, trade groups, local government, public agencies, and education and workforce providers. Input from these workshops confirmed the need and support for this Prize.
Through the Good Jobs in Clean Energy Prize, DOE seeks to:
1. Identify and support new and newly focused placed-based coalitions that will help ensure clean energy jobs created in communities are high quality and accessible to target populations.
2. Increase long-term engagement of relevant place-based coalitions serving target populations with clean energy employment opportunities.
3. Further develop place-based strategies consistent with DOE’s job quality and DEIA priorities in clean energy (including implementation of the Justice40 Initiative7) and EERE’s focus on implementing clean energy technologies equitably.
Coalitions must be five-member partnerships, at minimum, consisting of at least one entity from each of the following:
(1) Labor Organization: A single or multiple union local(s), an association of labor unions (e.g., a local or state Building and Construction Trades Council, a local or regional Central Labor Council, or a State Federation of Labor), or a combination of different labor organizations.
(2) Clean energy employer: Any public or private entity that employs workers in a clean energy sector.
(3) Community-based organization: A membership-based, non-governmental organization that represents the target population or a non-governmental organization with a track record of working with and serving the target population.
(4) Public agency: A governmental entity involved in implementing clean energy programs (e.g., a city or county sustainability office or a state energy office), a governmental entity involved in economic and workforce development (e.g., a local or state workforce investment/development board), a governmental entity involved in delivering public assistance programs (e.g., a county or state social service agency that provides financial assistance for food, housing, childcare, etc.).
(5) Education and workforce training provider: A public or private institution or organization that delivers workforce education and training services focused on middle-skill occupations (e.g., community colleges, adult high schools, registered apprenticeship programs, or apprenticeship readiness programs).