Waste-to-Energy Technical Assistance for Local Governments: Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to frequently asked questions about NREL's waste-to-energy (WTE) technical assistance for local governments, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO).
The goal of the WTE technical assistance program is to mobilize data and information compiled about organic waste streams to: (1) provide this data to local decision makers, (2) deploy the analyses that have been developed for a variety of energy/resource recovery strategies, and (3) foster local public-private partnerships. Ultimately, this program aims to enable organic waste energy and/or resource recovery at the municipal level by leveraging technical expertise and relevant data to address specific and unique issues each municipality encounters with their waste streams.
Types of assistance and activities include providing resource, technology, market, and policy data and information; analysis assistance; targeted discussions with stakeholders; assistance in strategic energy planning; education through webinars; consultations with technical experts; program review and evaluation; and request for proposal (RFP) development support and review.
Following the first-round application time frame (March 1, 2023, through April 14, 2023), NREL and BETO staff will review requests and respond to the applying agency about whether their request is selected by the end of April 2023. The selection process considers diversity in geography, community size, demographic characteristics, socio-economic status, requested topic, as well as WTE deployment opportunities, merit of the request, and potential project impact.
If selected, NREL will schedule a call to discuss your needs. The call will include NREL WTE team members with expertise related to your request. During the call, NREL will provide information on existing materials and resources, discuss activities related to your request, and outline next steps in the process. Our intent is for the technical assistance to be a collaborative process, and therefore we will be looking for active engagement.
Contact
If you have questions, contact the WTE Technical Assistance Team.