The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI), through a Partnership Intermediary Agreement (PIA) with TechWerx is seeking to partner with consumer protection organizations for the Building Solar Understanding and Risk Education (B-SURE) program. This $3 million opportunity will help consumer protection organizations design and deliver education and training on solar energy for consumers and professionals that support them. The effort aims to enable informed consumer choice and protect consumers as they navigate the rooftop solar industry from initial inquiry to disposal. Eligible applicants are organizations that work in consumer protection and education, either through networks of professionals and/or organizations or through direct relationships with consumers. This opportunity will provide 5-8 awards of approximately $250,000 - $750,000 each.
In March 2025, the President signed a Proclamation committing to protecting the financial well-being of Americans. This Opportunity is intended to address the issue that as the American rooftop solar industry has grown, so have complaints about predatory practices. News outlets have documented numerous instances in which households encountered unscrupulous practices including high-pressure sales tactics, misleading or fraudulent descriptions of costs, savings, and/or financing, system underperformance, or orphaned systems when the solar company goes out of business. In order to protect themselves from these risks, American households need accessible, fact-based resources delivered through trusted organizations. Important topics include: identifying trusted sources for unbiased information, avoiding scams, understanding loan terms, navigating operations and maintenance needs or warranty information, and understanding consumer rights. Entities including the U.S. Department of Treasury and Federal Trade Commission have issued consumer advisories and provided important resources to help consumers identify and avoid potential solar scams, but there remains a need for tailored resources and programs created and distributed by trusted sources.
The Building Solar Understanding and Risk Education (B-SURE) program will work with trusted consumer protection organizations to address challenges consumers face in the solar industry. B-SURE will enable these organizations to better support their stakeholders to confidently interact with the solar industry, from initial inquiry to operation and maintenance and through eventual decommissioning.
This opportunity will support approximately 5-8 consumer protection organizations to design, develop, and deliver training and education programs on solar energy topics relevant for their stakeholders and clients. This opportunity is intended for consumer protection, consumer education, and consumer-facing service organizations as prime awardees. Performers are not expected to have expertise or experience in rooftop solar as they will receive subject area support from CMEI throughout the duration of the opportunity in the form of resources and advising from DOE, other federal agencies, national labs, and other experts on the rooftop solar industry. Organizations whose work primarily serves solar professionals, companies, industry advocates, or industry members may participate as subcontractors, collaborators, or advisors, but are not encouraged to apply as the lead organization.
The objective of this opportunity is to enable more households and communities to make informed consumer choices and reduce risks associated with purchasing, owning, leasing, and disposing of rooftop solar energy systems. This will be accomplished through engaging established consumer protection or consumer education organizations to design and deliver tailored education, training, and communication programs. These programs will be informed by the unique needs of consumers and developed in coordination with CMEI to address rooftop solar knowledge gaps and help consumers identify high-quality, trusted information sources.
Selected performers will be experienced consumer protection organizations with demonstrated capacity to effectively reach and educate consumers, particularly those vulnerable to predatory practices. They will be responsible for developing, testing, delivering, and evaluating solar energy training and education to their intended audience. Performers will work with CMEI and other rooftop solar experts throughout the process to ensure content is accurate, supported by credible sources, and representative of the current market.
Performers will also be responsible for the identification of their target audience and must demonstrate to their audience how solar energy education is relevant and impactful for them. Performers are encouraged to employ a variety of methods to make any training offered interactive, engaging, and effective.
Content of the training and education programs should be customized for the relevant audience and their stakeholders, keying in on the greatest challenges when navigating the solar industry. Performers are encouraged to use stakeholder interviews, focus groups, advisory committees, or other methods to solicit additional input in the development of training and education programs. Examples of potential training content themes include:
Pre-Purchase Decision-Making:
Installation and Operation:
Post-Installation/Long-Term Ownership:
After the first year of developing and delivering their training and education programs, performers will transition their activities to scale their programs. During this “scaling phase,” performers will refine training content and methods based on audience feedback and assessed success metrics, conduct further scaling and communication planning with audience input, and work to implement their training and education strategies. These strategies may take a variety of forms including but not limited to:
Beyond the duration of the program, performers are expected to possess the organizational infrastructure and strategic vision to integrate their program insights and capabilities into ongoing operations, enabling sustained consumer protection and education efforts on solar energy.
Duration: The period of performance for selected performers is expected to be two years, with a go/no-go decision made by CMEI and TechWerx based on performance after the first year.
Application & Project Narrative:
Applicants will submit the following:
More details and submission guidance can be found in the Project Narrative Template.
May 13, 2026 by 5:00 PM ET
March 10, 2026
April 8, 2026 at 3:00 PM ET and April 21, 2026 at 3:00 PM ET
Phase 1) Submissions Open from March 10, 2026 - May 13, 2026
Phase 2) DOE Selection is expected around July 2026: DOE will review submissions based on relevance to the program objectives and review criteria and notify selected entities for next steps. Note that DOE may choose to meet with submitters or ask additional clarifying questions prior to selection.
Phase 3) Negotiations will occur for approximately two months after selections have been made: Selected organizations will meet with TechWerx to negotiate work, budget, timing and impact.
DOE will review and evaluate applications according to the Merit Review Criteria, program policy factors, and the overall portfolio of proposed projects. In conducting the review, DOE may seek the advice of qualified non-federal personnel as reviewers.
CMEI will apply the following program policy factors when reviewing and evaluating applications to select the most impactful projects aligning with national priorities:
Eligible performers meet the following criteria:
DOE retains the prerogative to require additional information from the applicants to verify the applicant meets the eligibility requirements. Further, DOE retains the prerogative to decide whether to fund the proposed project entirely, partially, or not at all.
1 To qualify as a domestic entity, the entity must be organized, chartered or incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a particular state or territory of the United States; have majority domestic ownership and control; and have a physical place of business in the United States.
2 DOE defines Country of Risk to include China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and Belarus. This list is subject to change.
3 Foreign Government-Sponsored Talent Recruitment Program is defined as an effort directly or indirectly organized, managed, or funded by a foreign government, or a foreign government instrumentality or entity, to recruit science and technology professionals or students (regardless of citizenship or national origin, or whether having a full-time or part-time position). Some foreign government-sponsored talent recruitment programs operate with the intent to import or otherwise acquire from abroad, sometimes through illicit means, proprietary technology or software, unpublished data and methods, and intellectual property to further the military modernization goals and/or economic goals of a foreign government. Many, but not all, programs aim to incentivize the targeted individual to relocate physically to the foreign state for the above purpose. Some programs allow for or encourage continued employment at United States research facilities or receipt of federal research funds while concurrently working at and/or receiving compensation from a foreign institution, and some direct participants not to disclose their participation to U.S. entities. Compensation could take many forms including cash, research funding, complimentary foreign travel, honorific titles, career advancement opportunities, promised future compensation, or other types of remuneration or consideration, including in-kind compensation.
This opportunity is managed by TechWerx in partnership with DOE, a collaboration made possible through an innovative Partnership Intermediary Agreement set up by the DOE Office of Technology Commercialization. This agreement enables TechWerx to broaden DOE’s engagement with innovative organizations and non-traditional partners.
Questions? Contact us at info@techwerx.org.