The United States Department of Energy (DOE) will fund a number of projects for electrical contractors thanks to an infrastructure bill signed into law on November 15, 2021. Numerous infrastructure projects will reap the benefits from a pot of more than $62 billion.
Some of the highlights include:
- Investing over $7 billion in the supply chain to be used toward mining, sourcing, and recycling batteries. These are essential to power the grid with clean, affordable, and resilient energy.
- Improving workforce development by investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the power grid, green building, and industrial sectors. Thanks to this funding, access to cutting-edge technology will spur training and career expansion.
- Establishing an Energy Jobs Council to oversee the development and release of energy jobs and workforce data. By joining with stakeholders, decisions made by national, state, and local governments will be well-informed.
- Providing grants to communities, cities, states, territories, and more through investments of $500 million or more into the State Energy Program, which develops and implements clean energy programs and projects, thereby creating jobs.
- Devoting $550 million into the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG).
Additionally, about $17 billion will exclusively focus on the electrical grid. The DOE said, “Extreme weather events like the Dixie Wildfire, Hurricane Ida, and the 2021 Texas Freeze have made it clear that our existing energy infrastructure cannot endure the impacts of climate change. Modernizing and expanding the electricity grid will make our energy sector more resilient, while enabling the buildout of affordable, reliable, clean energy.”
Of the $17 billion, $11 billion will go toward grants for states, Native American tribes, and utilities to increase electrical infrastructure against extreme weather, ransomware, and other issues. A $3 billion expansion of the Smart Grid Investment Matching Grant Program will be allocated, as well as a $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Program. Both programs aim to develop the power grid’s flexibility, upgrade to clean energy, deploy energy storage, and more.
J&P Electrical is a full-service electrical equipment company. At J&P, we supply contractors, end-users, and supply houses with new surplus, quality reconditioned, and obsolete electrical equipment. We also purchase a wide range of electrical equipment such as bus plugs, ducts, panel switches, substations, and transformers. Call us at 877-844-5514 or visit us at https://www.jpelectricalcompany.com.
Written by the digital marketing staff at Creative Programs & Systems: www.cpsmi.com.