Letters of Support
For federal funding opportunities where DOER is not an applicant or a partner to an applicant, DOER welcomes applicants to submit a Request for a Letter of Support about how the proposed project (Proposed Project) meets DOER and Commonwealth of Massachusetts energy goals. DOER will review Requests for a Letter of Support and provide a Letter of Support, at its discretion, for applications that are found to meet key Commonwealth energy goals, as determined by DOER. DOER will not review full applications and will not evaluate project design, nor will it compare application summaries that are applying to the same funding opportunity.
Please note that Letters of Support will not commit DOER or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in any manner to the Proposed Project, nor will the issuance of such Letters of Support include commitments of state funding or project management or represent a commitment or obligation to support, financially or otherwise, any Proposed Project.
Any Letter of Support issued by DOER shall be considered a public record and shall be public. The information Applicants submit to DOER in their Request for Support Letter shall be considered public, unless specifically identified as confidential energy information. However, DOER will only keep any such specifically identified confidential energy information confidential to the extent permitted by law and shall not be liable for any disclosure. As such confidential information cannot be included in DOER’s Letter of Support, Applicants should limit including or relying on this confidential information as much as possible in their Requests.
Please review the information below before requesting a Letter of Support from DOER.
How to Request a Letter of Support from DOER
Make sure to provide enough time (preferably two weeks or more) for DOER to review your request prior to the due date of the associated federal funding opportunity application.
Interested parties must Request a Letter of Support through the online form below to ensure prompt review and approval.
If DOER needs any clarification on the request, we may reach out to you using the submitted primary contact’s email address. If you have questions on the form, or if you encounter an issue when using the form, please contact Christina Moroney-Ebarb, Federal Program Coordinator at DOER, via email (christina.moroney-ebarb@mass.gov). Please include “Request for Letter of Support” in the subject line of your email.
Information on Requests for Engagement (RFE)
RFE on a Federal Grant Opportunity Overview & Purpose
DOER may post an RFE on this webpage in relation to federal funding opportunities where DOER is an eligible and interested applicant.
RFE announcements may have any of the following objectives:
- DOER to share information about the federal funding opportunity;
- DOER to collect stakeholder thoughts on the opportunity, including asking specific questions;
- DOER to identify potential funded and unfunded subrecipients to the application;
- DOER to solicit potential support; and
- DOER to understand program impacts on disadvantaged populations and environmental justice communities.
RFE Terms & Confidentiality
Information received through these RFE will be used by DOER to build and refine application design. Responses will not be considered confidential unless DOER states otherwise. DOER will consider a response as indicative of openness to engage on the application and may contact respondents with updates on the federal funding opportunity.
Subrecipient Roles & Responsibilities
If DOER selects any organization(s)/entity(ies) as a subrecipient through a RFE, subrecipients are expected to assist with designing the proposal and completing the application; and will be named in any final application submission. Depending on the federal opportunity, subrecipients may be required to provide a cost match. Please see the RFE for more details on each opportunity.
If a federal funding application submitted by DOER is chosen for award, subrecipients must sign a subrecipient agreement with DOER. Subrecipients must act independently within this agreement with limited oversight or project management from DOER. Subrecipients cannot provide commercially available services or goods to DOER with the subrecipient funding but will still be able to participate in future competitive procurements.
How Subrecipients are Selected
The following is a non-exhaustive list of RFE respondent qualifications DOER may prefer when selecting a potential subrecipient(s):
- Respondents that can improve the competitiveness of the application (e.g. DOE has indicated a preference for partners in general or specific types of partners or subrecipients propose work that is significantly aligned with the goals of the federal funding opportunity);
- Respondents that can perform tasks or work not normally completed by DOER;
- Respondents seeking no or limited profit from the opportunity;
- Respondents can demonstrate supplier diversity and diversity, equity, and inclusion plans,
- Respondents that can provide a cost match, financing support, or are not seeking funding; and
- Respondents that can build coalitions where their participation does not exclude other subrecipients.
RFE Timelines & Updates
All subrecipient identification timelines will be dependent on the federal funding opportunity and application deadlines.
DOER Announcements & Updates on Federal Funding Opportunities
DOER Submits Initial Applications to the U.S. Department of Energy to Receive Home Energy Rebates Programs Funding
On March 18, 2024, DOER held a public input session to gather public feedback on the initial proposal for implementing the Home Efficiency Rebate (HER) and the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate (HEAR) programs. In addition to verbal comments received during the public input session, DOER accepted written comments. DOER greatly appreciates all the public input. Many comments directly impacted the DOER application and DOER will continue to rely on other comments as the more detailed implementation plans are developed.
Watch The Public Input Session
Review the Initial Proposal
Read Public Comments
DOER has submitted the initial applications to DOE to receive the Commonwealth’s Home Energy Rebates Programs funding allocation. This application requires DOE approval and further submission of documentation by DOER, though it marks the biggest step toward securing the Commonwealth’s funding from the Home Energy Rebates Programs.
Following this application, DOER will be required to develop a State Implementation Blueprint. This will provide further details on the programs, and will include additional materials, including a Community Benefits Plan, Education and Outreach Strategy, Consumer Protection Plan, Utility Data Access Plan, and Privacy and Security Risk Assessment for State Systems. DOE approval on the State Implementation Blueprint is required before programs can be launched.
Answers to frequently asked questions from the public input sessions and public comments are available to be viewed below, with answers based on the DOER application to DOE.
DOER intends to implement the Home Efficiency Rebates (HER) funding through one existing and one new program, as follows:
- HER program delivery targeting 1-4 unit housing in communities served by Municipal Light Plants (MLP-HER) for customers not served by the Mass Save® program.
- MLP-HER is a new funding program designed to support residential customers of the 40 Municipal Light Plant (MLP) cities and towns in Massachusetts that do not currently participate in the Mass Save energy efficiency programs offered by the investor-owned utilities and energy efficiency service providers. The program design of MLP-HER builds on a prior demonstration scale program administered by DOER from 2018-2020 – the Home Energy Market Value Performance (Home MVP) Program – which incentivized energy savings primarily via heat pumps and weatherization for just over 500 homes.
- Additional funding for the DOER Affordable Housing Decarbonization Grant Program (AHD), targeting multi-family affordable deed-restricted rental housing statewide.
- This program has an initial $50M in state-provided project funding and an additional $3.5M in technical assistance funds. Project funding launched in 2023 and technical assistance funds are expected to be launched in mid-2024. DOER announced the first round of project awards in November 2023 and is currently reviewing a robust second round. HER funds awarded to AHD projects will augment the DOER and other state funds awarded to these projects where needed to close funding gaps. This combined funding will allow AHD projects to go forward when they otherwise would not, enabling them to achieve high levels of electrification and efficiency improvements over the historical baseline and the traditional refinance capital investment.
DOER intends to implement the Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) funding by integrating the federal funding into Mass Save. The HEAR rebates will be delivered through two Mass Save programs:
- The long-standing income eligible program serving households at or below 60% State Median Income (SMI) for single-family/60% AMI for multifamily, and
- a newly expanded moderate-income initiative providing enhanced rebates and services to households in the income range of 61-80% AMI.
DOER will continue to engage the public during the implementation of the proposed new and expanding programs. DOER expects to begin receiving funding from DOE by the end of 2024 (contingent on DOE approval and timelines), with implementation to begin in early 2025.
About the Inflation Reduction Act Home Energy Rebates Programs
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Pub. L. 117-169, was signed by President Biden on August 16, 2022. The law authorized the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to administer two Home Energy Rebate Programs and included funding opportunities for states to implement the programs:
- Section 50121: Home Energy Performance-Based, Whole House Rebates (Referred to as Home Efficiency Rebates or HER)
- Section 50122: High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program (Referred to as Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates or HEAR)
Together, these two provisions are referred to as the Home Energy Rebates.
The Home Energy Rebates Programs together authorize $8.8 billion in funds nationally for the benefit of U.S. households and home upgrades, to be distributed by State Energy Offices and Indian Tribes. The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) is the Commonwealth’s energy office, and in turn will be responsible for designing and implementing the Commonwealth’s allocation of Home Energy Rebates funds from DOE. The federal funds allocated to Massachusetts are: $73,086,125 (HER) and $72,809,130 (HEAR).
On January 18, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy issued a Request for Information on Inflation Reduction Act Home Efficiency & Electrification Rebate Programs (RFI). DOER received public input that helped inform its response to the DOE and will help inform design of the state program.