In support of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the second round of the Transmission Facilitation Program, a revolving fund supported by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help overcome financial hurdles facing large-scale new and upgraded transmission lines. Through the RFP, DOE anticipates deploying up to $1.2 billion in federal support to accelerate transmission buildout through capacity contracts, an innovative approach that increases the confidence of investors and potential customers while reducing risk for projects. These federal investments will unlock billions of dollars of state and private sector capital to build transformative projects that increase the reliability of the power grid and modernize it so that more American communities and businesses have access to affordable, reliable, clean electricity – helping deliver on the President’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.
“There’s no way around it: to realize the full benefit of the nation’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035, we need to more than double our grid capacity,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “President Biden’s historic clean energy legislation is helping modernize the nation’s transmission to deliver reliable, more affordable energy to every American community in turn driving down costs for American families and generating good paying jobs for American workers.”