TDEC submitted the first deliverable under its Tennessee Volunteer Emissions Reduction Strategy (TVERS), the Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP), in February. The PCAP demonstrates what is possible for future generations to enjoy Tennessee's economic prosperity and abundant natural resources. It supports investment in strategies that reduce emissions, strengthen the workforce, spur economic growth, and enhance health and quality of life. The TVERS planning team will virtually present on the PCAP on June 27 with two webinar options, one at 11:00 AM Central and the other at 6:00 PM Central. Register for the webinars here.

Fayetteville Public Utilities, TDEC, and TVA recently held a ribbon-cutting for a new electric vehicle fast charging station at 110 College Street West in Fayetteville, TN. The station, which features two chargers with both CCS and CHAdeMO plugs, is the 19th site to go live as part of TDEC and TVA’s Fast Charge TN Network.

Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell recently announced the details of Choose How You Move: Nashville’s Transportation Improvement Program. The plan focuses on four key areas: sidewalks, signals, service, and safety. This plan coincides with a transit referendum to pursue a dedicated funding source for transportation and infrastructure projects that will be on the November ballot. The plan was informed by more than ten years of transportation planning, including 70 existing community and neighborhood plans, as well as input from the public, two citizen advisory committees, and the Metro Council.

Energizing Tennessee, a podcast from the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC) and FirstBank, explores the latest news and insights about the advanced energy sector with experts sharing their thoughts on transportation electrification, workforce development, and the growing sector of advanced energy in Tennessee’s economy.

In episode twenty-one, host Cortney Piper interviews Dr. Chris Burns, Chief Executive Officer of NOVONIX, a battery materials and technology company. Piper and Dr. Burns discuss recent investments from U.S. DOE, the company’s Riverside facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and what the company is doing to enable the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

All episodes are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts. Click here to listen.

Register for the webinar here.

EPA and the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation will host a series of webinars covering technical assistance topics related to clean school buses, supporting the EPA Clean School Bus Program. Register here for any webinar in the series.

The fourth annual Infraday Southeast Summit will take place in Nashville on July 18. The event brings together policymakers, industry experts, researchers, and stakeholders to discuss the challenges and opportunities related to infrastructure development and modernization across the Southeastern U.S. The Summit will feature keynote speakers, panel discussions, and interactive workshops on a range of topics, including transportation, energy, water, and communication infrastructure. 

View the agenda and register for the Infraday Southeast Summit here.

The inaugural Tennessee Drone Symposium will provide a forum for Tennessee stakeholders to collaborate on the future of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Future Mobility. The event, hosted by Middle Tennessee State University on August 13-14 in Murfreesboro, will bring together industry thought leaders, policymakers, and high-impact end-users from both local and national entities. On day one, speakers will address funding opportunities, UAS projects and research, and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Compliance in Tennessee. Day two will include technical demonstrations, flights, and skill testing. Register for the Symposium here.

The 2024 Forth Roadmap Conference, an annual event that convenes leaders in the electric transportation space, will take place September 24-26 in Detroit, MI. The conference will allow attendees to forge relationships and gain valuable insights in a highly interactive format from industry and community leaders, including utilities, local governments, vehicle original equipment manufacturers, charging providers, technology startups, public interest groups, and communities.

View the agenda here and register here for the 2024 Forth Roadmap Conference.

The Tennessee Smart Mobility Expo will return to the Music City Center in Nashville April 2-3, 2025. Sign up here for email updates on speakers, registration details, and sponsorship opportunities.

Applications to all voucher programs are due July 9.

The U.S. DOT Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grants Program provides grants to eligible public sector agencies to conduct demonstration projects and prototypes focused on advanced smart community technologies and systems that improve transportation efficiency and safety.

Applications are currently being accepted for FY 2024 Stage 1 Planning and Prototyping Grants. Later this year, recipients of Stage 1 grants will be eligible to expand their projects through the first of several Stage 2 Implementation Grant opportunities. Eligible applicants for the SMART Grants Program include states, political subdivisions of a state, tribes, public transit agencies and authorities, public toll authorities, metropolitan planning organizations, and groups of two or more of these eligible entities applying through a single lead applicant.

SMART grants may be used to carry out a project that demonstrates at least one of the following: 

For additional information, view the Notice of Funding Opportunity and the application webinar recording. Applications are due July 12 through ValidEval.

EPA recently announced up to $932 million in funding for heavy-duty vehicle replacement projects under the Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program. Funding will support the adoption and deployment of eligible Class 6 and 7 zero-emission vehicles that will displace conventional vehicles while also funding zero-emission vehicle fueling infrastructure and workforce development and training.

Two separate sub-program competitions have been created under the Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program:

Eligible applicants include states, municipalities (including school districts), Indian Tribes, territories, and nonprofit school transportation associations. Additional information is available in the Notice of Funding Opportunity and on the Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program page. Applications are due July 25.

The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation recently announced the second round of funding under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program.  This round of funding makes up to $1.3 billion available for electric vehicle (EV) charging and alternative fuel infrastructure in urban and rural communities and along designated highways, interstates, and major roadways.

The CFI program is administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and is open to state, regional, Tribal, and local government entities. CFI Round 2 will make $800 million available for new applications, with an additional $521 million in funding to be reserved for reconsideration of previously submitted applications that were not selected for funding but were rated either “Highly Recommended” or “Recommended” under the FY 2022/2023 Round 1 Notice of Funding Opportunity.

Additional information is available in the FHWA’s overview webinar slides here. New applications are due through Grants.gov by August 28. Previously unselected applicants from Round 1 may request that FHWA reconsider previously submitted applications by July 1.

The Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant Program, administered by U.S. DOT, funds regional, local, and Tribal initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries. SS4A funds support communities in the development of road safety action plans and improve unsafe roadway corridors by implementing effective interventions. Additionally, these funds can be utilized to test out safety features such as separated bicycle lanes or curb extensions at intersections. 

Eligible applicants may come from individual communities or groups of communities and may include metropolitan planning organizations, counties, cities, towns, other special districts that are subdivisions of a state, certain transit agencies, federally recognized Tribal governments, and multijurisdictional groups of eligible applicants.  

Additional information is available on the SS4A FY 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity webpage and FAQs. Applications are due August 29.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced the Clean Bus Planning Awards Program (CBPA), funded by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office). The CBPA program reduces barriers to zero-emission bus deployment by providing school and transit bus fleets with free technical assistance to develop comprehensive and customized fleet electrification transition plans. Fleets also have the option to receive free deployment assistance from NREL upon completion of their plan. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis through September 30.

The Joint Office released a recording of the webinar, Overview for Electric School Bus Operators, to provide operators, technicians, and other school bus fleet members with a fundamental understanding of electric school bus technology.  Find additional resources on acquiring electric school buses on the World Resources Institute’s Electric School Bus Initiative website and Drive Electric Tennessee’s TN Bus Electrification, Education and Planning (TN BEEP) website.

The U.S. DOE Office of Technology Transitions and the Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) recently announced the TCF Open Voucher Call program to connect the public with researchers from U.S. DOE National Labs, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The program will award up to 21 vouchers for $100,000 technical assistance redeemable at one of eight U.S. DOE national labs.

Awardees will be selected based on innovative ideas and concepts for advancing energy, sustainability, or other lab-supported initiatives. Participating national labs will provide awardees with expertise and lab validation capabilities to help them advance their concept closer to commercialization. An informational webinar will be held July 18 at 2:00 PM Eastern. Applications are due October 3.

EPA announced $2 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act for the Community Change Grants Program. Funding is available for projects that deploy clean energy, reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. These place-based investments will be focused on community-driven initiatives to be responsive to community and stakeholder input.

There are two separate tracks available:

Eligible applicants include partnerships between two community-based non-profit organizations and partnerships between a community-based non-profit organization and a local government, institution of higher education, or federally recognized tribe. View the Notice of Funding Opportunity and the Grants.gov page for additional information. Applications are due November 21.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Atlas Public Policy added data through the 2023 end-of-year to its state and regional updates documents from the fourth annual “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” report, published in September 2023. This includes an updated Tennessee Transportation Electrification report. The updated report notes a 20% annual growth in manufacturing employment, a 53% annual growth in EV sales, and a call out for the EMPOWER Workplace Charging initiative administered by Tennessee Clean Fuels.

TDEC OEP is hiring a Grants Contracts Administrator to develop, track, and manage contracts and related compliance requirements for various clean energy grant programs and initiatives. The Grants Contracts Administrator will collaborate with TDEC OEP staff and stakeholders to design various clean energy grant programs and related collateral, serve as the TDEC OEP lead for the development of grant materials, and assist with grant monitoring and compliance.

Applications should be submitted through tn.gov/careers by July 8.

Visit the TDEC Office of Energy Programs Website at http://www.tn.gov/environment/energy.

Past Monthly Newsletters: 

May 2024

April 2024

March 2024

For more information or to submit an idea for a future Monthly Transportation Edition, contact:

Audrey Jackson, Communications Officer
TDEC Office of Energy Programs
615-917-6683 or audrey.jackson@tn.gov

OR

Alexa Voytek, Deputy Director, OEP Programs
U.S. DOE State Energy Program / Innovation & Transportation / Communications
TDEC Office of Energy Programs
 615-613-1096 or alexa.voytek@tn.gov

OR

Mark Finlay, Senior Energy Analyst, TDEC Office of Energy Programs
615-772-6011 or mark.finlay@tn.gov

Acknowledgement: This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the State Energy Program Award Number DE-EE0009487

Disclaimer: This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government.  Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.