Centrus Energy, a nuclear fuel and services provider, recently announced it will resume centrifuge manufacturing activities and is expanding its manufacturing capacity at its facility in Oak Ridge. The company will invest approximately $60 million while pursuing public-private partnerships and federal contracts to reestablish large-scale domestic uranium enrichment capacity for energy and national security needs. This announcement follows Centrus’ recent success in securing over $2 billion in contingent purchase commitments from customers to support future production of Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU), as well as two awards from the U.S. DOE aimed at enrichment and deconversion of High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU).

The U.S. DOE Office of Electricity recently announced selections under the Flexible Innovative Transformer Technologies (FITT) funding opportunity announcement to advance key components that will help modernize the grid. Transformers regulate voltage levels as power enters homes and businesses and are a critical grid component that ensures the reliability and security of power delivery. Selected projects under the FITT funding opportunity will address the technical challenges of advancing transformers through research, development, and demonstration across a range of distribution to transmission scale applications. Electric Research and Manufacturing Cooperative, Inc. from Dyersburg was selected to receive $1.84 million for a Distribution Transformer Extender (DTE) Project that will develop and deploy devices to use power electronics to combine critical solid-state transformer functionality with a small battery energy storage system.

U.S. DOE recently announced $17 million across projects to accelerate critical materials innovation while promoting safe, sustainable, economic, and efficient solutions to meet current and future supply chain needs. These projects are coordinated through DOE’s Critical Materials Collaborative, designed to catalyze a robust critical materials innovation ecosystem by connecting DOE’s critical minerals and materials portfolio with industry and beyond, supporting real-world innovation through each stage of the research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) pipeline. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was selected to receive $1 million to support a project entitled, “A Novel Energy-Efficiency Scalable Membrane Process for Separation and Recovery of Rare Earth and Domestic Sources,” which aims to develop an energy-efficient, cost-effective, high-yield, and environmentally friendly process for separation and recovery of high-purity rare earth elements (REEs) from domestic waste stream sources and mining tailings. 

The University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, has been awarded $750,000 in funding under the Jobs for the Future Quality Green Jobs Regional Challenge for East Tennessee Works, a regional green jobs initiative led by the university and focused on Knoxville’s inner-city and rural Southern Appalachian communities. The university is working with community partners, industry, labor organizations, and other educational institutions to train and support job seekers in advanced manufacturing and green construction. The funding will allow UT to act as a labor market intermediary, connecting employers, workers, training programs, labor organizations, and community-based groups offering essential services like transportation and childcare.

The U.S. DOE Industrial Training & Assessment Centers (ITAC) Program has re-opened applications for small and medium-sized manufacturing (SMM) firms to receive grants of up to $300,000 per unique assessment recommendation from ITAC assessments. These grants will support projects to improve energy and material efficiency, increase productivity, and reduce emissions at SMMs. Applications are due January 10, 2025. U.S. DOE will hold an informational webinar on January 7, 2025, at 2:00 PM Eastern.

U.S. DOE recently announced $3.3 million in funding under the Good Jobs in Clean Energy Prize. Up to 15 Phase One awardees will receive $50,000 for demonstrating robust partnerships focused on a specific clean energy employment opportunity. They will be eligible to participate in Phase Two of the prize. In Phase Two, up to 10 teams will each win $100,000 for developing and implementing their Coalition Action Plans that demonstrate how the coalition will advance job quality and job access in the clean energy opportunities within their community. In Phase Three, the top three performing coalitions will receive $200,000 to $300,000 for the strength of their impact in implementing their Action Plans, and up to seven runner-up coalitions will receive $125,000.

Eligible coalitions must include, at a minimum, one representative from each of the following stakeholder groups: labor organizations, clean energy employers, community-based organizations, public agencies, and education and workforce providers. Teaming lists are available here, and applications are due January 31, 2025.

The State Funding Readiness Project (SFRP) provides no-cost technical assistance to jurisdictions, including local governments, for preparing and applying for funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. SFRP can help jurisdictions identify specific investment opportunities, conduct a stakeholder mapping exercise, inform budget planning, meet Justice40 requirements, develop competitive grant applications, and strengthen linkages with administering agencies. They have supported forty projects in twenty-five jurisdictions thus far, securing over $1.5 billion in federal funding. SFRP has an open, rolling intake process and considers jurisdiction requests at any time. Learn more on the SFRP website.

The Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC) will host its Annual Meeting in Nashville on March 5. The Annual Meeting brings TAEBC members, stakeholders, and potential members together to celebrate Tennessee’s growing advanced energy economy. Reserve a spot at the Annual Meeting here.

The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) launched a learning series on registered apprenticeships through its Apprenticeships in Clean Energy (ACE) Network, a national coalition of industry, training, and workforce development leaders seeking to expand and diversify Registered Apprenticeship opportunities in the clean energy industries. Webinars are scheduled on the third Wednesday of every month at 2:00 PM Eastern through November 2025, and each session will focus on a specific aspect of apprenticeships, equipping attendees with the knowledge to develop, implement, and manage successful programs. View all upcoming webinars here.

E4 the Future recently released the 2024 Energy Efficiency Jobs in America report. Energy efficiency is the largest sector of the U.S. clean energy workforce, with nearly 2.3 million workers nationwide and employment continuing to rise. As noted in the Tennessee State Fact Sheet, energy efficiency is also the largest energy sector in Tennessee. There are energy efficiency workers in all counties in Tennessee, with a total of over 51,000 workers.  The report serves as a baseline by which to measure future energy efficiency job growth enabled by investments such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

U.S. Department of Treasury recently released the report, A Framework for Providing Technical Assistance and Capacity Building to State and Local Governments for the Use of Elective Pay. The report builds on insights from leaders in technical assistance, capacity building, and federal and state initiatives convened to develop a better understanding of the elective pay technical assistance landscape for state and local governments, document current efforts, and explore opportunities. The paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the findings, highlighting existing programs, identifying gaps that may impede state and local governments from fully utilizing elective pay, and proposing actionable next steps to better support state and local governments.

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

Past Monthly Newsletters: 

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024

For more information or to submit an idea for a future Monthly Energy 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 State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP) under the State Energy Program Award Number DE-SE0001095.

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.